General Information
G.Tsulukidze Mining Institute (TMI), formerly known as the Institute of Mining Mechanics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, was founded in 1957. In 2006, the Institute obtained the status of a legal person under public law. The Director of the Institute is Professor Nikoloz Chikhradze.
The regular staff of the Institute consists of 104 employees, including 35 academic staff (12 Chief Research Fellows, 9 Senior Research Fellows and 14 Research Fellows).
The academic staff of the Institute includes two academicians of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences.
Institute scientific divisions:
1. Center for Construction of Underground Structures and Mining Technologies, which consists of 3 laboratories:
- Laboratory of Deposit Development and Mining Geotechnics
- Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry and Mineral Processing
- Laboratory of Rope Systems
2. Department of expertise of explosive materials, explosion-protective structures and high-tech composites, which consists of 2 laboratories and 1 group:
- Laboratory of Explosives Synthesis, Expertise and Blasting Technologies
- Laboratory of Polymer Composites and High-Tech Materials
- Group of Engineering and Experimental Support of the Explosive Complex
3. Scientific Center for Engineering and Geological Research and Design, which includes 1 group and 1 laboratory:
- Engineering Research and Design Group
- Laboratory of Engineering-Geological Research
The main directions of scientific and technical work of the Institute are as follows:
- Improvement of construction and reconstruction of mining, transport, hydroengineering and other structures, development of technologies for sound and economical driving of tunnels and support structures;
- Study of the stressed-strained state of the rock mass around mine workings and underground structures and perfection of its assessment methods;
- Development of calculation methods of static, rheological/flow and dynamic loads of mine workings and underground structures, their computer programs and technical guidelines; application of those in specific projects;
- Improvement of design methods for opening and development of sheet and vein deposits;
- Research and development of a technology for mining deep levels of thick coal seams under difficult mining and geological conditions;
- Development of methods for complex utilization of manganese deposits;
- Development of pipe-line hydro-transportation systems (pulp-lines, oil and gas pipelines) safe and reliable operation complex events; elaboration of pipelines and equipment condition technical diagnostics advanced methodological principles;
- Pipelines electricity transportation system, transient regimes, non-stationary processes investigation and hydraulic impacts protecting effective means and ways development;
- Elaboration of pipelines and equipment hydro-abrasive wear investigation and reducing effective means and ways;
- The ropeway transportation means, lifting transport devices and mechanisms;
- Pipe-line hydro-transportation systems (pulp-lines, oil and gas pipelines) calculation, projecting, operation, expertise and monitoring problems related issues;
- Projecting, modeling, calculation and expertise of ropeways and similar roping and axial systems;
- Development of novel environmentally friendly explosives;
- Research of the seismic effect caused by a single blast and development of techniques for reducing its harmful impact on engineering structures;
- Perfection of blast operations in densely populated areas for reducing their harmful effect on natural and historic treasures;
- Development of computer programs for determining optimal parameters of drilling and blasting operations;
- Development of explosive compacting, hardening, welding and synthesis technologies;
- Development of superhard materials production technology using shock waves and high initial temperatures;
- Development of technologies for production of nanostructural composite materials;
- Analysis and elaboration of methods for calculation of dynamic loads caused by explosion;
- Development of systems for protection people and mining objects from explosion effect;
- Systems for protection collieries from methane and coal dust explosion;
- Establishment of properties of rocks and building materials and quality control;
- Development of a novel sound-damping and low-heat building materials production technology and research methods;
- Calculation and design of underground constructions and tunnels;
- Chemical analysis of ores and their beneficiation products;
- Analysis of drinking water;
- Preparation of samples for chemical analysis;
- Technological testing of metallic and non-metallic minerals by mechanical (gravity, magnetic separation, flotation) and chemical (hydrometallurgy) beneficiation methods.
Facilities
The Institute has an underground experimental base for testing explosives with up to 100 kg of the TNT equivalent. Other equipment includes presses (TechPress2TM hydraulic-pneumatic automatic mounting press), test benches, optical microscopes, X-ray diffraction system X1 (Scintag, USA), and metallographic, chemical and diagnostic laboratory equipment.
Scientific Cooperation and Technology Transfer
The Mining Institute has close international scientific collaboration with research centers and Institutes of EU Countries: Germany (Clausthal University of Technology), Greece, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic; USA (Los-Alamos National Laboratory, US Army Research Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, University of San Diego, Center for Infrastructure Protection and Physical Security of University of Florida); Russia (Semenov's Institute of Chemical Physics in Chernogolovka, Institute of High Pressure, Novosibirsk Institute of Hydrodynamics); Ukraine (Institute of Nature Management Problems and Ecology National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk, Paton's Institute of Electrical Welding, Dnipropetrovsk State Design Bureau "Yuzhnoye" etc.), Armenia (A.B.Nalbandyan Institute of Chemical Physics NAS RA), Kazakhstan (Combustion Problems Institute), etc.
Participation in Scientific Projects
G.Tsulukidze Mining Institute has participated in a number of scientific projects funded by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (Georgia), International Science & Technology Center (ISTC), Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), US Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF), Georgian Research and Development Foundation (GRDF), NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme (SPS), International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the independent states of the former Soviet Union (INTAS), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).