EUROCK 2017 report

Date: June 19 –24, 2017 (including workshops and technical visits)

Venue: Auditorium GONG & Clarion Congress Hotel, Ostrava, Czech Republic

Organizer: NG of the ISRM of the Czech Republic & Institute of Geonics of

the Czech Academy of Sciences

Number of registered participants: 245

Number of attended participants: 229

Venue of the Symposium – Auditorium Gong, Lower Area of Vitkovice

Workshop before the symposium:

Workshop on Simulation of Fractured Rock Masses organized by ITASCA from Germany was held

before the symposium. Main goal of the workshop was the introduction and practical examples of

numerical simulation methods for fractured rock and workshop was designed for engineers from mines

and underground constructions and scientists from academic institutions. Workshop was very successful

with attendance of 40 participants from 15 countries. Five lectures were given by Mr. Christian Missal

form Germany, Prof. Heinz Konietzky, from Germany, Mr. Le Goc Romain from France and Prof.

Stefano Utili from the UK.

Participants of the Workshop on Simulation of Fractured Rock Masses

Symposium

Symposium started by Welcome reception on Monday evening on the 19th

of June 2017 as an informal

meeting of EUROCK 2017 participants. This famous and very respecting event came back to the Czech

Republic after 12 years, when the first EUROCK symposium was held in Brno city in 2005. Organizers

selected a special venue for EUROCK 2017 as a combination of a classical congress hotel and a technical

heritage site – GONG Auditorium in the Lower Area of Vítkovice where which used to be a huge fuel

tank and was reconstructed as a congress hall. The main motto of the symposium was Human activity in

rock masses.

Distinguished experts, who have been involved in the field of rock mechanics and rock engineering for

many years, were invited as keynote speakers. These experts were professor Heinz Konietzky from

Germany, Prof. Frederic Pellet from France, Dr. Jiří Ptáček from the Czech Republic, Prof. Walter

Wittke from Germany and Prof. Arno Zang from Germany.

Many famous foreign colleagues from the field of rock mechanics and rock engineering from

International Advisory Committee and International Scientific Committee supported EUROCK 2017

symposium by their personal attendance. These experts were Prof. Charlie Li, ISRM Vice President for

Europe from Norway, Prof. Norikazu Shimizu, ISRM Vice President at Large from Japan, Prof. Manchao

He, ISRM Vice President at Large from China, Prof. Naj Aziz from Australia, Prof. Hani Mitri from

Canada, Dr. Jan Nemcik from Australia, Prof. Yuzo Obara from Japan, Dr. Rajendra Singh from India,

Prof. Wulf Schubert from Austria and Prof. Resat Ulusay from Turkey. Two candidates for next ISRM

President support symposium by personal attendance, Prof. Resat Ulusay from Turkey and Prof. Jian

Zhao from Australia.

June 20, 2017: Opening ceremony, morning keynote lecture by Prof. Walter Wittke who talked about

Design based on the Anisotropic Jointed Rock Model (AJRM) - Illustrated on the basis of the Large-

Scale Infrastructure Project Stuttgart -Ulm with more than 50 km of tunnels; morning parallel sessions in

4 sections - Laboratory and in-situ rock testing, Rock mass properties, New materials and technologies in

geomechanics and geotechnics, dynamic phenomena in rock mass; afternoon keynote lectures by Prof.

Pellet who talked about Rock Mechanics meeting the challenge of geo-energies and by Dr. Ptáček who

talked about Rockbursts in hardcoal mining in the Czech Part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (during

his lecture he introduced his book about Rockbursts in Ostrava Karvina coalfiled which was published at

the occasion of the symposium); afternoon parallel sessions - Laboratory and in-situ rock testing, Rock

mass properties, Mine design and ground control, Underground storage and waste disposal.

June 21, 2017: Morning parallel sessions in 4 sections - Laboratory and in-situ rock testing, Rock mass

properties, Mine design and ground control, Hydraulic fracturing, Design methodology in mining and

underground constructions, Geothermal energy & Mine design and ground control, Dynamic phenomena

in rock mass; morning keynote lectures by Prof. Konietzky who talked about Simulation of Hydraulic

Fracturing and by Prof. Zang who talked about Fatigue Hydraulic Fracturing; poster session (poster

session was held as a special session with a special time without any simultaneous program), afternoon

parallel sessions - Laboratory and in-situ rock testing, Rock mass properties, Mine design and ground

control, Underground storage and waste disposal, symposium banquette.

June 22, 2017: Morning parallel sessions in 4 sections - Laboratory and in-situ rock testing, Design

methodology in mining and underground constructions, Mine design and ground control, Dynamic

phenomena in rock mass; morning keynote lecture selected from accepted papers by Dr. Al Heib who

talked about Pillar Burst Assessment Based on Large-Scale Numerical Modeling; closing ceremony.

The famous ISRM colleagues at welcome party (from left to right: Prof. Stephansson, Prof. Zhao and Prof. Li)

Prof. Wittke during his keynote lecture

Dr. Maleki´s presentation in parallel session

Participants during discussion in poster session

More phots are available on the following website:

https://www.zonerama.com/UGNAV/Album/3344441

Proceedings

Organizers accepted 257 abstracts which were sent on time. 175 full papers were sent on time for peer

review. Peer review of each full paper was done by two independent reviewers. 153 full papers were

accepted after corrections according to the reviewers´ recommendations.

All accepted papers were published in Procedia Engineering Journal form Elsevier Publishers, Volume

191, Pages 1-1218 (2017). All papers are available for downloading from sciencedirect.com webpage free

of charge:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18777058/191

Procedia Engineering Journal, Volume 191 has been indexed in Scopus database. Procedia Engineering

Journal, Volume 191 will be indexed in Web of Science database during a few months.

Electronic Proceedings (Procedia Engineering Journal, Volume 191) on CD will be sent to ISRM after

delivering form Elsevier.

Technical trips:

The first technical trip was organized to a hardcoal underground colliery operated by OKD mining

company in Karvina region which is the only producer of hard coal in the Czech Republic and all of its

coal is mined in the southern part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. One group visited the longwall

mining in difficult mining, geological and geomechanical conditions with a high level of rock burst risk.

The second group experienced the Room and pillar method which is tested in the deepest conditions

around the World here.

Participants of the underground hard coal mine visit (left - longwall visit, right - room & pillar panel visit)

The second technical trip was organized to the Construction of Underground Rock Lab in Dolni Rozinka,

South Moravia. The unique Bukov PVP underground research facility is situated on level 12 of the Rozna

underground mine (600m below the Earth’s surface). The laboratory allows experts to perform

experiments aimed at investigating the characteristics and behaviour of the geological environment at a

depth of a half kilometre beneath the Earth’s surface (the storage chambers of the future deep geological

repository will be constructed at the same depth) - the behaviour of groundwater, stress changes in the

rock mass, seismic activity (i.e. the evaluation of the effects of vibrations caused e.g. by blasting), rock

fracture developments, the transport characteristics of rock, the occurrence and dissemination of

microorganisms, etc.

Participants of underground rock lab visit

More photos are available on the following website:

https://www.zonerama.com/jsmu/Album/3262374?secret=2Q6xg0wd2NK3m11fl3DMG3TH3

Financial statement

The table below shows the fees collected according to the participants´ registration (amounts without

VAT because VAT had to be payed to the government). Collected fees represent 37 participants with

regular fees, 67 participants ISRM members and 81 participants up to 35. 44 participants were invited

guests free of charge and organizers. Total amount 2 874,64 Euro (5 % of collected fees) will be payed to

the ISRM according to issued invoice by the ISRM to BOSorg agency which administrates the

symposium budget.

Compiled by:

Assoc. Prof. Petr Konicek PhD

President of the Czech National Group of the ISRM