Terry Wiles has been chosen by the global panel of judges to be inducted into the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame in the Mining Software category at the gala awards dinner in Denver on February 20th, during SME Conference week. Dr Terry Wiles received a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto and went on to work for Inco in Sudbury contributing to some pioneering work on rockburst alleviation measures. He left INCO to develop Map3D, a fully integrated three‐dimensional layout (CAD), visualisation (GIS) and stability analysis package (BEM elasto‐plastic numerical modelling stress analysis). Map3d has been commercially available since 1990. Wiles has been solely is responsible for all technical developments and innovation in Map3d.
Map3d has been the industry standard since 1990 and has been continuously enhanced to provide a powerful engineering design tool. Map3d numerical models have been used worldwide for underground excavations, rock slopes, open pits, tunnels, to account for the presence of fractures and surface infrastructure loads. The stress analysis models can simulate yielding (non‐linear) zones of different moduli (e.g. stiff dykes or soft ore zones) and loads due to steady state thermal/fluid flow. Excavations can be intersected by multiple discrete faults (nonplanar and gouge filled) that slip and open. Map3D can simulate ground support elements such as arches, steel sets, props, thick liners, chalks, backfill etc.
Since its introduction, the software developed by Wiles has been the most widely used stress analysis software at mines sites worldwide. It is currently used by many hundreds of mining, civil and geotechnical companies, consultants, research centres and universities around the world.
Competence in the use of Map3d is often a prerequisite for employment in rock engineering in most deep and high stress mines and consulting firms. A further indication of the impact of the software is that there has been a direct industry driven need for continuous training at mine sites worldwide. This has resulted in more than 100 Map3D courses disseminated by Terry Wiles in Australia, Canada, Chile, Korea, South Africa and Sweden. These courses have been attended by close to 1,000 practicing rock engineering specialists.
The accessibility of Map3d has made it the reference tool in both industry and academia. This is reflected in the International Conference forums in Rock Engineering and Deep and High Stress where a large number of publications and presentations refer directly to results obtained using Map3d.
Wiles received the 2011 Rock Mechanics Award of the Rock Engineering Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM). As indicated at the citation at the time “….developed what is arguably some of the most utilised and practically‐applied modelling software that currently exists at mine sites”.