Effects of Rock Classes and Porosity on the Relation between Uniaxial Compressive Strength and Some Rock Properties for Carbonate Rocks

Different carbonate rock classes of various origins (namely sedimentary limestones, diagenetic dolomitic limestones, travertines, and metamorphic marbles) have been exposed and widely used as dimension stones and aggregates in different parts of Iran. Twenty percent of all Iranian decorative stone is produced in Fars Province, southern Iran. The Neyriz and Dehbid-Bavanat areas are the most important centers of rock production in the province. As Yilmaz (2009) mentioned, rock strength is a very important criterion for classification of rocks in order to optimize construction usage and surface and/or subsurface structure designs. Some authors believe that textural and compositional characteristics of rocks affect their strength (Kahraman et al. 2005). Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), the most widely used parameter to evaluate rock strength, requires expensive and time-consuming testing with careful sample preparation (Karakus et al. 2005). Many researchers have tried to predict UCS based on simpler, faster, and less expensive physical tests by means of statistical methods. For this purpose, researchers have introduced several empirical equations for determination of rock strength via simple physical properties. By means of such properties, rock strength may be determined in an easy, quick, and inexpensive manner during field investigations (Sabatakakis et al. 2008). However, often various rock types (rock classes) of different origin and composition are considered together when deriving such empirical equations, and little attempt has been made to consider different rock classes separately (Torok and Vasarhelyi 2010). The objective of this study is to determine the effect of rock classes and porosity on the relationship between UCS and some other properties of carbonate rocks with different geneses (sedimentary, diagenetic, and metamorphic). Studied properties included density, Young’s modulus, and tensile strength.

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