ABSTRACT
Another related aspect is that we have studied relatively simple loading configurations and circumstances in order to be able to explain and illustrate the rock failure. In practice, an in situ rock mass will be simultaneously subjected to a combination of variables such as heat, water, stress, chemical effects and time. In this case, the rock mass response must be evaluated through fully-coupled thermo-hydro-mechanicalchemical numerical models, as is being progressed, inter alia, by the DECOVALEX programme mentioned in the introductory section of Chapter 12. There is even less chance of being able to validate such models, especially at the full scale of rock engineering, and so the concept of technical auditing of the codes and their operation is critically important. Does the code contain all the necessary variables? Does it contain all the interactions between the variables? Have all the data been input correctly? These and many other questions are crucial if the design of a rock engineering project is to be based on the output from such fully-coupled codes.
