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Rock Mechanics Lab
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The lab explores how rock and rock masses fracture and how they can be solidified, using experiments and computation.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring how rock breaks and how it solidifies.
The Rock Mechanics Lab studies how rock and rock masses deform and fracture, using experiments and numerical simulation.
Learning from beachrock, in which beach sand and gravel naturally turn into rock, the lab also works on developing technology that solidifies soil using microorganisms.
Based on this research, the lab aims to address rock mass problems in resource development and civil engineering, such as rock mass stability in mines, geological disposal of radioactive waste, and tunnels.
Key terms
- Rock mass
- A large, continuous body of rock extending underground or at the surface
- Beachrock
- Rock formed when beach sand and gravel are naturally cemented together by substances such as calcium carbonate
- Discrete element method
- A method that represents an object as a collection of many particles or blocks and computes the motion and collisions of each one
NewsLab news
Assistant Professor Min received the Encouragement Award from the Japan Explosives Society
A master's student received the Young Researcher Excellent Presentation Award at the Spring Meeting of the Hokkaido Branch of the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan
Assistant Professor Min and Associate Professor Fukuda received the Paper Award from the Japanese Committee for Rock Mechanics
A master's student received the Outstanding Poster Award at the Rock Mechanics Symposium of Japan
Assistant Professor Min received the Outstanding Oral Presentation Award at ISEM2024
ResearchResearch themes
The lab investigates through experiments how rock and rock masses fracture and deform, and applies that knowledge to developing fracture simulation technology. It also works on developing ground solidification and self-healing technologies inspired by how beachrock hardens.
*Illustrative imageGround solidification inspired by beachrock
Focusing on calcium carbonate, the main cementing material in beachrock, the lab found a microorganism that precipitates calcium carbonate around beachrock in Okinawa Prefecture. It has developed a technology that uses this microorganism to solidify soil into rock or concrete-like material in a short time, and has confirmed its effectiveness on coral sand as well.
*Illustrative imageExperiments on how rock fractures
The lab has testing equipment that examines the deformation and fracture of rock over a wide range of loading rates, from slow loading to impact loading. It applies the findings from experiments to numerical analysis, aiming to advance the design of rock structures and improve their stability.
*Illustrative imageComputing how rock fractures
The lab develops technologies to compute how rock and rock masses fracture, using methods such as the combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM), which merges the finite element method and the discrete element method. Its goals are to make rock fragmentation by blasting and similar processes more efficient and to improve rock mass stability in mines and elsewhere. Because the computational load is high, the lab also uses large-scale computation on GPUs.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Rock Mechanics Lab consist of faculty, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, researchers, and research students.As of 2026
- ProfessorSatoru Kawasaki
- Associate ProfessorDaisuke Fukuda
- Assistant ProfessorGyeongjo Min
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Beachrock aerial view” Alessio Rovere / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Ground solidification inspired by beachrock: “Reunion Saint-Leu Beachrock(detail)” B.navez / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Experiments on how rock fractures: “Fractured rock” SBLCebry / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Computing how rock fractures: “Aru-Lõuna quarry blasting” Siim Roov / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (International Resource and Environment Systems Lab): “Kushiro Coal Mine 2011” Ozizo / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Resource Chemistry Lab): “Rio tinto river CarolStoker NASA Ames Research Center” Carol Stoker, NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Resource Management Lab): “Open Pit Mine, Near Iron Mountain Area, Utah (73262911)” Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (River and Watershed Engineering Lab): “Takikawa view from glider” Soica2001 (talk) / Public domain (cropped)
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