Effect of microstructure and weathering on the strength anisotropy of porous rhyolite

To study the effect of microstructure and weathering on the strength anisotropy of rock, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests were carried out on three porous rhyolites having the same original lithology, but different weathering periods of 2600, 20,000 and 40,000 years. The rock is mainly composed of glassy groundmass, with flow structure. UCS tests were undertaken on a series of samples at 15° intervals, from right angles to the flow structure (β=90°) to parallel (β=0°), where β is the angle between the direction of the applied load and the direction of the flow structure. The test results show that UCS-values are maximum when β=0–30° and minimum when β=60–90°. This differs from previous reports for layered anisotropic rocks such as sandstone, sandy shale, schist etc., for which, UCS-values are maximum at β=0 or 90°. It is also found that UCS-values for β=60–90° reduce rapidly in the initial stage of weathering (the first 20,000 years), while for β=0–30°, the reduction rate increases after 20,000 years. This shows that the effect of weathering on strength anisotropy is not uniform, but depends on the weathering processes of the microstructures of the rock.