BLOG

The mining sector in Brazil is undergoing a profound transformation. Following the Mariana (2015) and Brumadinho (2019) dam failures, the industry has strengthened its commitment to geotechnical safety and data transparency. Regulations now demand continuous monitoring and clear traceability in decision-making. Yet, many mines still manage monitoring and geotechnical data in isolation, making it difficult to detect anomalies early or validate model assumptions. The key challe

Characterising rock mass conditions at the tunnel face is a critical part of every underground project. Traditionally, this process requires manual visual assessment, note-taking, and later calculation of rock mass parameters — a workflow that is often time-consuming and subjective. The new DAARWIN Rock Characterisation Tool, co-developed with ACCIONA , transforms this process. By automated data interpretation, DAARWIN enables engineers to evaluate the Rock Mass Rating (RMR)

In tunneling and underground construction, understanding the ground is the first line of defense against uncertainty. The Rock Mass Rating (RMR)  system has long been a cornerstone for assessing rock quality, guiding support design, and predicting excavation performance.However, when RMR is determined manually , engineers face significant challenges that can compromise both accuracy and efficiency. In complex tunneling environments, the reliability of design decisions depends

Rigid inclusions have become a trusted solution for improving soft or compressible soils, particularly in projects where strict settlement criteria and variable ground conditions demand a reliable form of reinforcement. Whether supporting embankments, industrial slabs, or offshore foundations, their success depends on achieving consistent load transfer between the inclusions, the surrounding soil, and the overlying structure. Yet, one of the greatest challenges in practice re

In geotechnical and mining engineering, shear strength  represents the material’s ability to resist deformation and failure. It defines the boundary between stability and movement, governing the behavior of slopes, excavations, and tailings dams. According to the Mohr–Coulomb criterion , shear strength (τ\tauτ) can be expressed as: τ=c+σ′tan(ϕ) where c is cohesion, 𝜎 is effective normal stress, and ϕ is the angle of internal friction These parameters are rarely constant unde

In offshore geotechnical engineering, Cone Penetration Testing (CPT and CPTu) remains a cornerstone for evaluating subsoil conditions—particularly within soft, layered marine sediments where borehole sampling is often limited or logistically constrained. However, despite the wealth of information CPT offers, many geotechnical workflows remain inefficient—fragmented by manual data handling, inconsistent interpretation protocols, and delayed integration into the design phase. D

Mechanized tunneling has long relied on the collection of vast amounts of operational and geotechnical data, but until recently, this information remained fragmented—distributed across TBM logs, monitoring reports, and design models. The emergence of Digital Twins  marks a shift from simple data acquisition to data intelligence , creating a real-time virtual counterpart of the tunnel that evolves in synchrony with the excavation process. In this context, the digital twin inte