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HOW TO
CALCULATE
CORE RECOVERY
AND RQD OF
ROCK?
February 6, 2016 by Suryakanta

Core Recovery
and RQD (Rock
Quality
Designation)
The easiest way to characterize the
amount of material recovered during rock
coring is to calculate “core recovery” as
the amount (i.e. length) of recovered
material divided by the total length of the
core run (presented as a percentage).

Rock Quality Designation (RQD) is a

modified core recovery percentage in
which the lengths of all sound rock core
pieces over 100 mm in length are summed
and divided by the length of the core run.
Pieces of core that are not hard and sound
should not be included in the RQD
evaluation even if they are at least 100 mm
in length. The purpose of the soundness
requirement is to downgrade rock quality
where the rock has been altered and/or
weakened by weathering. For the RQD
evaluation, lengths must be measured
along the centerline of the core.

Figure shown below illustrates the correct

procedure for calculating core recovery
and RQD.

CORERECOVERY RQD
CALCULATION CALCULATION

L=250mm L=250mm

CoreRecovery.CR-Totallengthefrockrecovered
Totalcorerlength

L=0 (250+200+250+190+60+80+120)mm
L=200mm HighlyWeathered CR=
Doesnotmeet 1.200mm
SoundnessRequirement

CR=96%

L=0
L=250mm Centerline
CoreRunTotal1200mm

Pieces<100mm
andHighlyWeathered

>Lengthofsoundpieces>100mm
ROD=
L=190mm L=190mm
Totalcorerunlength

(250+190+200)mIL*100
ROD= %
1.200mm
L=60mm L=0
<100mm

L=80mm ROD=53%
MechanicalBreak
causedbyDrillingProcess L=200mm

L=120mm

L=0mm L=0
NoRecovery

Illustration on Core Recovery and RQD calculation

The following table presents the correlation

of RQD to rock quality.

ROCK QUALITY DESCRIPTION BASED

ON RQD.

Description of Rock
RQD Value
Quality

0-25 % Very poor

25-50 % Poor

50-75 % Fair

75-90 % Good

90-100 % Excellent

Important Notes:

The RQD is appropriate for use with

all core sizes except for BQ and BX
core with NX and NQ core size being
optimal.
Core breaks caused by the drilling
process should be fitted together
and counted as a single piece of
sound core.
Drilling breaks are usually evidenced
by rough fresh surfaces, however for
laminated rocks (i.e., rocks
containing horizontally oriented
fracture surfaces), it may be difficult
to identify core breaks caused by
drilling. In this case, the RQD should
be estimated conservatively; for
shear strength characterization it is
conservative to not count the length
near horizontal breaks whereas for
estimates of rock blasting
requirements, it is conservative to
count the length near horizontal
breaks.

Reference
ASTM D 6302

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8 thoughts on “HOW TO
CALCULATE CORE
RECOVERY AND RQD OF
ROCK?”

Reza
February 4, 2020 at 7:26 pm

Hello. How can we know where the

rock has been altered and/or
weakened by weathering?

Reply

Abadi
December 23, 2019 at 1:56 pm

I need some examples on the RMR

Reply

M K SINGH
May 18, 2019 at 11:54 pm

What is BX , BQ ,NX , NQ cores ?

Reply

Raja Gohar Parmar

March 21, 2019 at 7:53 pm

can we calculate the RQD of rocks

on the basis of non-core samples ?

Reply

Raja Gohar Parmar

March 21, 2019 at 7:51 pm

can we calculate RQD with the help

of drilling time ? how many meters
we have drilled ?

Reply

mesay zemedkun
February 16, 2019 at 3:19 pm

Ok good teortical support, pleas

support by actual photo(CORE
BOX).

Reply

Deashan
April 23, 2018 at 5:28 pm

If given a mixture of centimeters

and millimeters , do i convert the
centimeters or take anly those that
are in millimeters?

Reply

Fulgence
May 30, 2017 at 12:41 am

try to clarify your answer ,if always

we take the values which is greater
to 100mm and specify the factor of
soundness

Reply

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