  The paper outlines some recent developments of the boundary element method
(BEM) that makes it more user friendly and suitable for a realistic simulation
in geomechanics, especially for underground excavations and tunnelling. The
innovations refer to the introduction of isogeometric concepts, elasto-plastic
analysis and the simulation of ground support. The introduction of isogeometric
concepts for the description of the excavation boundaries results in less user
and analysis effort, since complex geometries can be modelled with few
parameters and degrees of freedom. No mesh generation is necessary. In order to
consider heterogeneous and inelastic ground conditions a domain discretisation
is used but the use of isogeometric methods results in a minimum of user
effort. Efficient methods are also presented for modelling rock bolts. A
comparison of results of test examples with other numerical methods and
analytical solutions confirm the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed
implementation. A practical example with a complex geometry is presented.
