LAUSR

Mechanical properties of rocks are a pivotal factor in geostructure construction, mining, and rock engineering application because rock mechanical properties significantly influence downstream engineering processes such as blasting, excavating, and rock failures (Ghassemi 2012; Goetze and Evans 1979; Jing 2003; Perras and Diederichs 2014). Since rock mechanical properties vary with many other factors (e.g., density, porosity, permeability, mineral composition, inhomogeneities, moisture content, temperature) (Kim et al. 2009, 2010, 2012a, b; Schumacher and Kim 2013, 2014; Sieter et al. 2015), a comprehensive view of rock mechanics is required. In order to eliminate this deficit in knowledge, the Earth Mechanics Institute was founded at the Colorado School of Mines to assist in sharing the benefits of new excavation technologies with the field of underground civil and mining construction. For more than 40 years, the EMI has worked to advance the science of physical property tests and measurements and has also developed an industry-leading collection of mechanical rock excavation tools. The data and models generated by the institute have impacted construction projects worldwide. However, to improve data accessibility to the public, including students, researchers, colleagues, and industry workers, the vast collection of data generated by the EMI naturally solicits the need for analytical and visualization tools. In addition, the vast collection of data requires a strong organizational scheme. The implementation described in this paper serves as an example of such a solution. It leverages a relational database to organize data into a wellstructured schema and a server-side web programming language to serve dynamic content from the database to the client for visualization and analysis. The motivation behind a comprehensive EMI rock mechanics database stems from the perpetual need for highly specific rock mechanics data on demand. Virtually all construction or mining projects require significant rock mechanics research in the exploration stage of the project before the design process can begin. This research often requires the retrieval of a very specific characteristic of a specific rock or soil type, which may be difficult without an organized collection of such information. The purpose of this database is to extensively fingerprint a collection of rocks such that any desired characteristic of a given rock can be easily obtained with a high level of confidence in the accuracy of the data. In addition to the retrieval of information, the database also aims to facilitate the discovery of trends and patterns amidst a large collection of data. Just as the biology ‘‘GenBank ’’ database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) seeks to amass large & Eunhye Kim [email protected]