Franz Pacher

Franz Pacher (28 April 1919 in Prostřední Suchá, present-day Czech Republic – 3 March 2018 in Salzburg, Austria[1]) was an Austrian civil engineer and a pioneer of modern tunneling.

During their years together, Pacher and Müller made major advances in rock engineering and helped usher in the era of modern tunneling in the mid-1960s.

In the years prior to 1975, his collaboration with Professor Ladislaus von Rabcewicz was crucial to the development of tunneling construction and design.

[6] Pacher was responsible for major advances in fundamental research, such as the definition of planar and volumetric proportions of discontinuities and the ground reaction curve.

In a 1964 publication, he introduced the Pacher-Fenner curve, a method for prediction and graphical representation of the interaction between ground pressure and tunnel support loading.

From 1966 to 1988, he served as an expert in rock mechanics on the reservoir commission at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Environment and Water Management.