Establishing Empirical Relationships for the Effects of Water Content on the Mechanical Behavior of Gosford Sandstone

Excerpt

Mechanical properties of intact rocks, such as uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), Young’s modulus (E) and tensile strength (TS), are the key factors in rock engineering and are commonly the first parameters to be characterized for any designing process. In many projects, point-load index (PLI) is measured to indirectly estimate the UCS of the intact rock. The influence of water on the mechanical behavior of rocks can be problematic for the stability of rock mass in different civil and mining structures. Many studies have attempted to address these effects experimentally and analytically (Duda and Renner 2013; Erguler and Ulusay 2009; Fischer and Paterson 1992; Hawkins and McConnell 1992; Lisabeth and Zhu 2015; Nicolas et al. 2016; Ojo and Brook 1990; Rutter 1974; Wong and Jong 2014; Zhou et al. 2016), and it has been confirmed by different researchers that an increase in water content can lead to a decrease in the strength of intact rock (Baud et al. 2000; Chenevert 1970; Lashkaripour and Passaris 1995; Li and Reddish 2004; Lia et al. 2012; Töröka and Vásárhelyib 2010; Vásárhelyia and Vánb 2006; Zhou et al. 2016). …