Estimation of rock engineering properties using hardness tests

In engineering projects such as tunnels, dams, foundations, and slope stability, the strength and elastic properties of the intact rock affect both the project design and the construction operation. It is sometimes expensive and time consuming to perform direct tests to evaluate the engineering properties (such as strength, modulus of elasticity, and Poisson's ratio) of the intact rock. The purpose of this work is to investigate the relationships between the engineering properties of the intact rock and the different types of hardness (Schmidt, shore scleroscope, abrasion, and total hardness), which are relatively cheap and easy to evaluate. In this study, dolomite, dolomitic limestone, and shale rocks were used. For simplicity, linear statistical analyses were performed. The results show that there are good relationships between the engineering properties of the intact rock and its hardness. Also, the results of this study are compared well with the results obtained by other investigators conducted on different types of rocks.     

Investigation into Relationships Between Cerchar Hardness Index and Some Mechanical Properties of Coal Measure Rocks

This paper examines the relationships between Cerchar hardness index (CHI) and some mechanical properties of coal measure rocks in Zonguldak Hard Coal Basin. Some index properties (Cerchar hardness index, Shore scleroscope hardness, in situ Schmidt rebound hardness and point load strength) and strength (uniaxial compressive strength and Brazilian tensile strength) properties of 29 sedimentary rock samples are determined. Then, relationships between (CHI) and strength as well as and some other index values are evaluated using statistical methods. Linear relationships are found between CHI and uniaxial compressive strength, Schmidt rebound hardness. Power relationships are determined between CHI and Shore scleroscope hardness, diametral point load strength, point load strength anisotropy index. Besides, CHI tests are performed by means of bits having tip angles of 99° and 125° and excellent linear relationships are identified between them.     

Prediction of specific energy of carbonate rock in industrial stones cutting process

Specific energy (SE) measurements of circular saws were conducted on 12 different carbonate rocks. Rock samples were collected from the factories for laboratory tests. Bulk density, apparent porosity, uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, flexural strength, Schmidt rebound hardness, Shore hardness, point load strength index, Los Angeles abrasion values, and P-wave velocity values were determined in the laboratory. SE and rock properties were evaluated using simple regression analysis and empirical equations were developed. The equations were verified by statistical tests. Regression analysis showed that high correlations exist between SE and uniaxial compressive strength, Shore and Schmidt hardness, bulk density, apparent porosity, and flexural strength. It was found that the SE value of rocks in cutting process was highest for those rocks having the high density, compressive strength, flexural strength, Schmidt and Shore hardness, point load strength index, and P-wave velocity values.     

Correlation of mineralogical and textural characteristics with engineering properties of selected granitic rocks from Turkey

Granitic rocks show a variety of engineering properties that may affect quarrying operations, tunneling, mining, slope stability and the use of rock as a construction material. The physical and mechanical properties are a function of the mineralogical and textural characteristics of the rock. The purpose of this study is to apply correlation analysis to investigate the relationships between petrographical and engineering properties of granitic rocks. A variety of granitic rock samples from different parts of Turkey were subjected to petrographic studies. The same samples were then tested to determine specific gravity, dry and saturated unit weight, water absorption, effective and total porosity, sonic velocity, Schmidt hardness, point load strength index, uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. The relationships between these properties and the petrographical characteristics are described by simple regression analyses. The study revealed that the influence of the textural characteristics on the engineering properties appears to be more important than the mineralogy. It also determined that the types of contacts, grain (mineral) shape and size significantly influence the engineering properties of the granitic rocks.     

The reservoir properties of the rocks of the bazhenovskaya formation

This work is dedicated to interpretation of the results of complex laboratory petrophysical studies of core samples of the rocks of the Bazhenovkaya Formation from several wells at Western Siberian deposits. The major aim of this study is the comparison and substantiation of analytical results that were obtained by various methods of determination of petrophysical rock properties, which is necessary to reveal the methods of complex petrophysical studies that are the most correct and applicable for the rocks of the Bazhenovskaya Formation.     

Estimation of Durability Aspects of Al Masjid Al-Haram Marble,Makkah City,Saudi Arabia

The durability is a measure of the rock’s ability to resist degradation during its working life. Rock durability is greatly related to the mineralogical composition of rocks, rock texture (crystal interlocking, crystal shape and size), and the nature of fluids that are in contact with rock. Marbles have been among the most important building materials since ancient times. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the durability of Al Masjid Al-Haram marble and Ordinary white marble “Carrara” (M₁ and M₂) and develop some correlations among the physical and mechanical properties such as P-wave velocity, slake durability index, dry uniaxial compressive strength (UCS_Dry), abrasion resistance, point load index, impact strength index, Brazilian tensile strength, and Shore hardness. After testing and the evaluation of the test results, strong statistical correlations were found between P-wave velocity and other rock properties. Statistical correlations between the UCS_Dry other tests were also carried out. The coefficients of regressions (R²) range from 0.6177 to 0.997. The study shows that the UCS_Dry values of M1 and M2 have positive relationship with P wave velocities. Concluding remark is that the rocks tested in the study have good durability characteristics and can be reliably used for construction projects. On the other hand, the derived empirical equations can be used for the estimation purposes for similar rock types.     

Study of mechanical properties of Vindhayan shaly rocks at elevated temperature

Shale is an important rock due to its suitability for different engineering and scientific applications. Elevated temperature may cause major deformation or damage in shale rock and it may be of irreversible in nature. Such damage have adverse effect on the physicomechnical properties of shale rock. The uniaxial compressive strength and tensile strength of two shales (upper Vindhyan basin, India) have been estimated at elevated temperature using point load strength index method. The rock samples have been analyzed at various temperatures starting from room temperature to 900 °C. The effect of elevated temperature on the physicomechanical properties and their influence on the uniaxial compressive strength has been studied in detail. Damage induced, in both shale have been estimated using compressional wave velocity. The analysis of the experimental result shows that the uniaxial compressive strength decreases from 63.45 to 18.45 MPa and 60.94 to 22.22 MPa, for Jhiri and Ganurgarh shale respectively. Tensile strength of shales have been also estimated. The value of tensile strength decreases from 3.65 to 1.05 MPa and 3.46 to 1.26 MPa respectively for Jhiri and Ganurgarh shale. Multivariate regression analysis has been carried out to obtain the correlation between physicomechanical properties and uniaxial compressive strength of Jhiri and Ganurgarh shale.     

Salt weathering in dual-porosity building dolostones

The influence of rock fabric on physical weathering due to the salt crystallization of selected brecciated dolostones is discussed. These dual-porosity dolostones are representative of heterogeneous and anisotropic building rocks, and present highly complex and heterogeneous rock fabric features. The pore structure of the matrix and clasts is described in terms of porosity and pore size distribution, whereas the relative strength for each textural component is assessed using the Knoop hardness test. The whole characterisation process was carried out using the same samples as those used in the standard salt durability test (EN-12370), including connected porosity, the water saturation coefficient, fissure density, compressional wave velocity and waveform energy.

Results show the most important rock fabric elements to be considered are the matrix and clast properties and the nature of fissures. Firstly, a relatively weak matrix was the focus of major granular disintegration as it presents high porosity, low pore radius and reduced strength. Secondly, narrow micro-fissures appear to be important in the decay process due to the effectiveness of crystallization pressure generated by salt growth. On the contrary, macro-fissures do not contribute greatly to rock decay since they act as sinks to consume the high supersaturations caused by growth of large crystals. Additionally, an analysis of stress generated by crystallization was carried out based on the general situation of a lenticular crystal geometry. Finally, the relationships between whole petrophysical properties and durability were established using a principal component analysis. This analysis has clearly established that the durability of rocks affected by salt crystallization mechanisms diminishes in weaker and anisotropic rocks with high porosity and fissure density.     

Prediction of thermal conductivity of rocks by soft computing

The transfer of energy between two adjacent parts of rock mainly depends on its thermal conductivity. Knowledge of the thermal conductivity of rocks is necessary for the calculation of heat flow or for the longtime modeling of geothermal resources. In recent years, considerable effort has been made to develop artificial intelligence techniques to determine these properties. Present study supports the application of artificial neural network (ANN) in the study of thermal conductivity along with other intrinsic properties of rock due to its increasing importance in many areas of rock engineering, agronomy, and geoenvironmental engineering field. In this paper, an attempt has been made to predict the thermal conductivity (TC) of rocks by incorporating uniaxial compressive strength, density, porosity, and P-wave velocity using artificial neural network (ANN) technique. A three-layer feed forward back propagation neural network with 4-7-1 architecture was trained and tested using 107 experimental data sets of various rocks. Twenty new data sets were used for the validation and comparison of the TC by ANN. Multivariate regression analysis (MVRA) has also been done with same data sets of ANN. ANN and MVRA results were compared based on coefficient of determination (CoD) and mean absolute error (MAE) between experimental and predicted values of TC. It was found that CoD between measured and predicted values of TC by ANN and MVRA were 0.984 and 0.914, respectively, whereas MAE was 0.0894 and 0.2085 for ANN and MVRA, respectively.     

Textural characterisation of rocks

Textural characteristics are a major factor in determining the mechanical behaviour of rocks and in the prediction of performance of rock cutting and drilling equipment. The principal textural characteristics of rocks are grain size, grain shape, grain orientation, relative proportion of grains and matrix material which were herein quantitatively measured using a modern image analysis system. These features resulted in a texture coefficient represented by a single number for each rock specimen. In this study a range of both textural and mechanical data for a range of rock types are given with some of the textural determination methodology. Correlation between textural and physical properties are also highlighted. The results of drilling tests using polycrystalline diamond compact (pin and hybrid) and impregnated diamond core bits in the rocks are presented which demonstrate the influence of rock texture on drillability. The rock texture can be used as a predictive factor for assessing the drillability and cuttability, mechanical and wear performance of rocks.     

影响花岗质石材抛光性因素的研究

研究表明,花岗石的抛光光泽度与岩石中各种矿物的光学性质密切相关,同时受岩石的结构、构造、风化变色以及岩石中发育的节理等多种因素的影响.随着风化变色度及节理密度的增加,抛光光泽度出现下降的趋势.因而,有关岩石材料抛光性的岩石学、风化岩石学以及构造地质学的研究是石材评价和开发中的重要问题.     

The Influence of Testing Procedures on Uniaxial Compressive Strength Prediction of Carbonate Rocks from Equotip Hardness Tester (EHT) and Proposal of a New Testing Methodology: Hybrid Dynamic Hardness (HDH)

The Equotip hardness tester (EHT) is a portable and non-destructive instrument used mainly for the dynamic rebound hardness testing of metals. Although various versions of the ‘single impacts’ and ‘repeated impacts’ testing procedures have been employed by different authors for different applications, it is not yet known whether a particular testing procedure is more relevant for a specific application in rock engineering. To be able to contribute to the subject, the present study was carried out to determine the suitability of different rebound testing procedures with this instrument for uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) estimations of some selected carbonate rocks. To achieve this goal, as well as four different existing rebound testing procedures, a newly proposed testing methodology involving the parameter hybrid dynamic hardness (HDH) was also employed. The statistical analyses performed on the experimental data, on the whole, showed that the test procedures which are based on single impacts test procedures outperformed the repeated impacts test procedures in terms of UCS prediction accuracy. The prediction capability of the newly introduced testing methodology was found to be superior to those of other procedures considered in this work, suggesting that it could be an efficient tool in practice for preliminary estimates of rock strength. The statistical analyses also indicated that, in practical applications of the EHT using different test procedures, it may be possible to predict the UCS more accurately when apparent density data is available. For the range of specimen sizes considered, no clear evidence of size effect was observed in the mean rebound values. The argument raised by some other authors that the EHT might not be a convenient instrument for the dynamic rebound hardness determination of relatively high-porosity rocks was not confirmed in this study.     

Estimation of Rock Cuttability from Shore Hardness and Compressive Strength Properties

Summary Shore hardness has been used to estimate some mechanical and physical properties of rocks for many years. This study differs from previous studies in a way that it is directly oriented to rock cuttability. Two Shore hardness values (SH ₁ andSH ₂) and a coefficient of deformation value (K) have been measured for 30 different rock samples. In the first stage of the study, optimum specific energy values for 16 different rock samples obtained from full-scale cutting tests were correlated with the Shore hardness values of the same rock samples changingSH ₁ values from 9 to 66 andSH ₂ values from 25 to 83, with deformation coefficient values changing from 26 to 195. In the second stage, the performance of a roadheader used in the Kü?üksu (Istanbul) tunnel was recorded in detail and the instantaneous cutting rate of the machine was determined. Then, the relationship between Shore hardness values, deformation coefficient and the instantaneous cutting rate of the machine was determined for different formations encountered. It is concluded that there is a relationship between Shore hardness values, optimum specific energy and compressive strength, which may be used to estimate the rock cuttability and the instantaneous cutting rates of roadheaders within certain limits of reliability.     

Preliminary results of a study on the responses of sedimentary rocks to shaft excavation

A shaft with a diameter of 6 m and a depth of 150 m was excavated in sedimentary rocks. Anin situ study was carried out to identify the size and rock properties of the zone disturbed by the excavation and to estimate the applicability of existing methods for measuring and modelling such a zone. The study detected displacements and changes in the properties of the rock within about 1 m of the shaft wall. Numerical analysis using a model of continuous rock mass can simulate some features of disturbance due to excavation, although slight discrepancies exist between the measured and analysed results. The excavation disturbance detected in this study is probably due to fracturing, the redistribution of stress and undersaturation. However, the relationships between the disturbance due to excavation and these processes have not been quantified. The existing methods for measurements and numerical analysis can provide important information on the disturbance due to excavation but need to be improved to understand disturbance due to excavation further.     

The effect of cubic specimen size on uniaxial compressive strength of carbonate rocks from Western Turkey

One of the most important quality and design parameters of natural rock materials is uniaxial compressive strength (UCS). UCS value of a building stone determines its application area such as cladding, roofing, facing, and coverings. In rock mechanics and engineering practice determination of UCS values of rock materials is suggested on core specimens whereas in construction and building stone sector, cubic specimens are suggested. In this experimental study, the effect of cubic specimen size on UCS values of some carbonate rocks which are being used as dimension stones are investigated. A total of 299 cubic specimens at five different edge sizes (3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 cm) from limestone, marble, and travertine are prepared. Chemical, petrographic analyses and physical properties of specimens are determined and after that UCS tests are carried out. It is observed that as the specimen sizes increase from 3 to 11 cm, average UCS values decrease about 7% for the tested carbonate rocks. In the light of this finding, results of UCS tests could be interpreted considering cubic specimen sizes for the same rock types in various fields.     

A correlation between P-wave velocity and Schmidt hardness with mechanical properties of travertine building stones

As known, P-wave velocity and Schmidt hardness are non-destructive tests, which have been used for many years in geological, geotechnical, and civil engineering as an index tests for a quick assessment of rocks mechanical properties due to its rapidity and easiness, and non-destructiveness. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between P-wave velocity and Schmidt hardness with some of mechanical properties of travertine building stones by empirical equations. Moreover, we have compared the accuracy of P-wave velocity and Schmidt hardness to estimate the mechanical properties of rocks. For this purpose, 15 types of travertine have been collected from various quarries of Iran and tested. The tests include the determination of P-wave velocity and Schmidt hardness, and mechanical properties include the unconfined compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, and point load strength. Using data analysis, empirical equations have been developed for estimating the mechanical properties from P-wave velocity and Schmidt hardness. To check the validity of the empirical equations, a t test was performed, which confirmed the validity of the proposed empirical equations. Moreover, the results show that P-wave velocity appears to be more reliable than the Schmidt hardness for estimating the mechanical properties. Consequently, we propose empirical equations avoiding from cumbersome and time consuming tests for determining the mechanical properties of rocks.     

陕北烧变岩水-岩作用的劣化特性

鄂尔多斯盆地东北缘陕晋蒙交界地区存在大量煤火高温烘烤形成的烧变岩。与原岩相比,烧变后的岩体结构破碎孔隙发育,在长期水–岩作用下,形成了大量危岩体。以陕北神木大柳塔地区的烧变岩为对象,开展了50次干湿循环试验,测试不同循环次数后烧变岩物理性质与力学性质及其变化,探讨不同烧变程度烧变岩劣化特性。结果表明：烧变岩质量、硬度、力学性质下降,表面亮度降低,粗糙度与红黄色度增强;基于低场核磁共振技术(NMR)测试,烧变岩孔隙体积比例曲线右移,最大孔径扩张;微孔向大孔转化,大孔含量与总孔隙率升高;烧变作用使岩体孔隙发育,且提高了烧变岩的抗侵蚀能力,降低了色度、质量、粗糙度、硬度、力学性质的变化程度。长期水–岩作用可对烧变岩的物理力学性质与孔隙结构造成明显改变,烧变程度与初始孔隙结构能够影响劣化效果。根据研究不同烧变岩的劣化过程,得出加固低烧变程度岩体表面、加固沉积层理与原有裂隙、堵塞高烧变程度岩体孔隙,可降低水-岩作用的侵蚀破坏强度。     

The Schmidt hammer in rock material characterization

The Schmidt hammer provides a quick and inexpensive measure of surface hardness that is widely used for estimating the mechanical properties of rock material. However, a number of issues such as hammer type, normalization of rebound values, specimen dimensions, surface smoothness, weathering and moisture content, and testing, data reduction and analysis procedures continue to influence the consistency and reliability of the Schmidt hammer test results. This paper presents: a) a critical review of these basic issues; and b) the results of tests conducted on granitic rocks of various weathering grades in the light of the conclusions of this review. It was found that a very good correlation exists between L and N hammer rebound values and that both hammers are fairly sensitive to the physical properties, particularly to dry density though less so to effective and total porosities. The N hammer, producing a lesser scatter in the data, proved to be more efficient than the L hammer in predicting uniaxial compressive strength and Young's modulus. The exponential form of the correlation curves was found to reflect microstructural changes during the course of weathering and the differences in the probing scales or mechanisms in the means of measuring these mechanical properties, and could be generalized to other crystalline igneous rocks. The possibility of predicting weathering grades from rebound values was also explored. The changes in the rebound values during multiple impacts at a given point produced a better indication of the weathering grade than a single impact value. It was concluded that increasing the impact energy and plunger tip diameter should significantly reduce the scatter in coarse-grained weathered rocks and hence improve the reliability of the Schmidt hammer as a rock material characterization tool.     

基于一种脆性指标确定岩石残余强度

岩石的残余强度是岩石力学的重要指标,准确地评价岩石残余强度对于评价地下工程的稳定性以及优化岩体支护设计具有重要意义。基于岩石的三轴力学特性提出一种表征岩石峰后强度衰减行为的力学指标--岩石强度衰减系数,该指标可反映岩石的脆性程度,并提出岩石强度衰减系数与围压关系的幂函数模型。对22组不同成因的岩石常规三轴压缩试验数据进行幂函数模型参数拟合,发现不同岩石拟合所得参数离散性较大,分析其原因主要与岩石矿物组成和岩石结构特征等因素相关。在此基础上提出基于强度衰减方法确定岩石残余强度的方法,分析表明,该方法能够很好地拟合岩石残余强度试验数据,并能反映岩石结构性质对残余强度的影响。