Skip to content

SME Mining Engineering Handbook — Geotechnical Instrumentation (Chapter 8.5)

About this reference

This page is an original, open digest of Chapter 8.5 — Geotechnical Instrumentation of the SME Mining Engineering Handbook (3rd edition), authored by Erik Eberhardt (University of British Columbia) and Doug Stead (Simon Fraser University). It is a chapter-level summary — not a reproduction of the copyrighted source text. The handbook is published by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME); the original chapter and its figures remain the copyright of the authors and the publisher. The digest is offered for education and orientation; a full Vietnamese translation is provided alongside it, and the original English PDF is reproduced here for reference.

Chapter 8.5, Geotechnical Instrumentation, is one of the most-cited modern surveys of instrumentation practice in mining. Written by two of the field's leading rock-mechanics academics, it covers 21 pages (pp. 551–570) and is organised around a single organising idea: instrumentation serves two distinct functions — the investigative function (collecting the input parameters a design model needs) and the monitoring function (observing how the ground actually responds, and warning when it departs from design).

That framing is what makes the chapter useful. Rather than an instrument catalogue, it reads as a decision sequence: what question are you trying to answer, what parameter answers it, what instrument measures that parameter with sufficient range, resolution, accuracy and reliability — and how do you get the data back in a form somebody can act on?

Scope of this reference

# Section What it covers
1 Introduction Investigative vs. monitoring functions; the seven instrument-selection criteria — range, resolution, accuracy, precision, conformance, robustness, reliability
2 Instrumentation for investigation Borehole techniques (core orientation, televiewers, borehole geophysics); remote sensing (LiDAR, digital photogrammetry); surface geophysics; groundwater characterisation (piezometers, flow testing); in-situ stress measurement (overcoring, hydraulic fracturing)
3 Instrumentation for monitoring Dunnicliff's 20-step planning approach; transducer types; surface displacement (geodetic/RTS, GPS); extensometers; tiltmeters; borehole displacement (probe and in-place inclinometers, borehole extensometers, convergence systems, shaped accelerometer arrays, TDR, fibre optics); remote sensing of deformation (InSAR, slope radar, LiDAR/photogrammetry); pressure cells; microseismicity
4 Data acquisition and presentation Wireless data transmission; data immersion and visualisation; integrated mine-data models
5 References A 64-entry reference list spanning ISRM suggested methods, SAIMM slope-stability symposia, and the primary journal literature

The chapter is illustrated with 14 figures and 5 tables, all of which are reproduced in the Vietnamese translation below.

Full documents (PDF)

Bản dịch tiếng Việt đầy đủ — Chương 8.5 (29 pp., A4). Bản dịch trọn vẹn toàn bộ Chương 8.5, gồm 5 bảng và 14 hình minh họa, kèm toàn bộ danh mục tài liệu tham khảo. Thuật ngữ được chuẩn hóa theo TCVN (áp kế, thiết bị đo biến dạng sâu, ống đo nghiêng, hộp đo áp lực…), trình bày bằng phông Times New Roman.

Tải PDF bản dịch tiếng Việt (đầy đủ)

Original English chapter — SME Mining Engineering Handbook, Chapter 8.5: Geotechnical Instrumentation (21 pp., pp. 551–570), by Erik Eberhardt and Doug Stead. Reproduced here as published by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) for reference.

Download the original Chapter 8.5 (English, PDF)   Publisher page — SME

Why this chapter matters in this knowledge base

Chapter 8.5 is the mining-side counterpart to the civil-side material the rest of this library is built on:

  • Its selection-criteria framework (range, resolution, accuracy, precision, conformance, robustness, reliability) is the vocabulary this site uses whenever an instrument is specified — see Getting Started.
  • Its transducer table (LVDT, vibrating wire, accelerometer, fibre optic, MEMS) explains why each instrument behaves the way it does, and is the natural companion to the Dunnicliff and FHWA digests.
  • Its Dunnicliff 20-step planning procedure is the organising spine behind the site's vendor-neutral ADAQS six-layer architecture.
  • Its in-situ stress and piezometer sections give the rock-mechanics and groundwater grounding that Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering approach from the soil side.

How to use this reference

  • Read the selection criteria first (§1). Most instrumentation failures are specification failures, not sensor failures.
  • Use the Dunnicliff 20-step table as a checklist before you buy anything — steps 1–8 are the ones most often skipped.
  • Work through investigation before monitoring: the chapter is explicit that predictive monitoring should follow a period of investigative monitoring.
  • Cross-link into Dunnicliff, FHWA, Monitoring Dam Performance and Tailings Dam Safety for civil-side depth.
  • Ask the GTI Doctor to pull specifics from the wider corpus.

Safety and currency. Remote-sensing and wireless-sensor technology has moved considerably since this chapter was written — InSAR revisit times, radar precision and fibre-optic distributed sensing all continue to improve. Treat the principles and selection logic as durable and verify current instrument specifications with manufacturers before relying on them for a design or regulatory submission.

Featured Keynote Lecture (Rocscience): Dr. Evert Hoek Lecture Series — Rock Mass Properties: In-situ Characterization, GSI System, and Underground & Open-Pit Rock Mechanics.

Complementary Practical Field Resources from RST Instruments & Measurand (Terra Insights)