What is Rock Mechanics

Engineering behavior of rock mass is controlled by many factors, related to its nature and the environmental conditions. Determining all the parameters, ranking their weights, and clarifying their relative effects are very difficult tasks to accomplish. To overcome these difficulties, many researchers have employed soft computing methods in rock mechanics engineering. The soft computing methods have taken an important role in rock mechanics, and their abilities to address uncertainties, insufficient information and ambiguous linguistic expressions stand out in treating complex natural rock mass. This chapter briefly will review the development of soft computing techniques in rock mechanics engineering, especially in predicting of rock engineering classification system and mechanical properties of rock material and rock mass, determination weathering degree of rock material, evolution of rock performance, blasting and, rock slope stability. In addition, the future of the development and application of soft computing in rock mechanics engineering is discussed.