Influence of specimen size on engineering properties of macroporous rock-like materials

Sara Morrison, Nick Hudyma, Bethany Erfourth, Mary MacLaughlin

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Macroporous rock, such as lithophysal tuff and vesicular basalt, has long exasperated the engineering community due to its inability to be neatly characterized. Such rock can have extreme variability in the size, shape, distribution, and density of the voids which in turn causes great deviation in its engineering properties. Given the variability of the void size and shape, the proper specimen size can be difficult to distinguish. ASTM standards dictate the specimen diameter must be three times the nominal maximum size of voids or aggregate, calculating the nominal maximum size of macropores is not feasible. To simplify the characterization of the impact of specimen size, analog plaster models containing Styrofoam spheres of one-inch diameter were tested. Specimens are right cylinders with diameters of 5.08 cm, 7.62 cm, and 10.16 cm with 2:1 aspect ratios. All three specimen sizes were able to effectively capture trends in unconfined compressive strength and Young's modulus over a range of porosities, though the regression types differ. Only the 7.62 cm and 10.16 cm diameter specimens produced valid trends in the Young's modulus at various porosities, although as mentioned, the regressions are different. Copyright ASCE 2007.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11
Number of pages1
JournalGeotechnical Special Publication
Issue number162
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
EventGeo-Denver 2007: New Peaks in Geotechnics - Denver, CO, United States
Duration: 18 Feb 200721 Feb 2007

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