Geology 229

Engineering Geology
Lecture 5
Engineering Properties of Rocks
(West, Ch. 6)
Common mechanic properties:
Density;
Elastic properties:
- elastic modulii
1. Uniaxial rock mechanics test
1. Deformation and strain
2. Elastic modulus, Poissons ratio
3. Hookes law the linear elastic constitutive relation
2. Triaxial rock mechanics test
Mohr circle
Combination of Coulomb shear failure criterion and
Mohr circle
Expressing Coulomb criterion by principal stresses
Outline of this Lecture
Review of Rock Strength and Failure Criteria
1) tensile failure will occur if we have
|| > T
2) compressive failure will occur if we have
|| > C
3) shear failure will occur if we have (Coulomb
Criterion)
> S
0
+
Typical rock strength values
1 psi = 6.895 kPa
Uni-axial Compression Test
In a uni-axial compression test, the direction of the load is called
the maximum principal direction and there are no other loads
(forces) working on other direction. Attention should be exercised
to the fact that the convention for defining the principal direction
and principal stress may be different from earth science and
physics. In physics, it is usually define the tensile stress, the
extensional deformation as positive, whereas in earth science it is
the opposite. We define compressive stress, and
compressional deformation as positive,
simply because the nominal status in the crust is
compressive and compressional (think about a diver
at the depth of 100 m, but the material is not water
but rock now, and the normal compressive stress
is 2.5 MPa at depth of 100 m of rock).
Rock Deformation
Fundamental Definitions
First we need define deformation. The deformation is the change of
shape and size of a material under loading. The elastic deformation is the
part or the kind of deformation that can be recoverable, i.e., after the load
is removed, the material changes back to its original shape and size, The
part or kind of deformation that cannot be recovered is the plastic or
ductile deformation.
Correspondingly, the property of the material of elastic deformation is
called elasticity; the property of plastic deformation is the plasticity.
In a relatively loose definition, load is the external force acting of the
material to cause deformation, so load and deformation is a pair of terms,
one is the reason, the other is the result. In a more specific or more
quantitative way there is another pair of terms to describe it. This is the
stress and strain.
stress:
force per unit area;
Special case: stress in fluid is called pressure, the
stress at a given point in all directions are the same
isotropic stress.
Strain:
deformation in a unit length, area, or volume.
The stress-strain relation of rock deformation
For a uni-axial loading test
STRAIN
Change in shape or size of an object in
response to an applied stress.
= Deformation
Three Types of Strain
Elastic
Ductile (Plastic)
Brittle (Rupture)
Elastic Deformation
A temporary change in shape or size
that is recovered when the applied
stress is removed.
If the response of the material to the
load/unload is instantaneous, it is a pure
elastic material;
If the response of the material to the
load/unload needs finite time, it is a
visco-elastic material;
Ductile (Plastic) Deformation
A permanent change in shape or size
that is not recovered when the stress
is removed.
i.e. it flows or bends
Rupture is a kind of Brittle
Deformation
the loss of cohesion of a body under
the influence of deforming stress.
i.e. it breaks
Lets concentrate only on the elastic
properties of the earth materials
These material properties are described by elastic
modulii.
Youngs modulus E
Youngs modulus is the stress needed to
compress the solid to shorten in a unit
strain.
Poissons ratio
Poissons measures the relativity of the
expansion in the lateral directions and
compression in the direction in which the
uni-axial compression applies.
z z
E
/
1

=

z z
r r
/
/

=
Shear Modulus (some books use the letter G)
The shear modulus describes how difficult it is to deform a
cube of the material under an applied shearing force. For
example, imagine you have a cube of material firmly
cemented to a table top. Now, push on one of the top edges
of the material parallel to the table top. If the material has a
small shear modulus, you will be able to deform the cube in
the direction you are pushing it so that the cube will take on
the shape of a parallelogram. If the material has a large
shear modulus, it will take a large force applied in this
direction to deform the cube. Gases and fluids can not
support shear forces. That is, they have shear modulus of
zero. From the relation given above, notice that this implies
that fluids and gases do not allow the propagation of the
shear motion carried by the seismic S-waves.
Shear Modulus
The shear modulus describes how difficult it is to deform a
cube of the material under an applied shearing force. For
example, imagine you have a cube of material firmly
cemented to a table top. Now, push on one of the top edges
of the material parallel to the table top. If the material has a
small shear modulus, you will be able to deform the cube in
the direction you are pushing it so that the cube will take on
the shape of a parallelogram. If the material has a large
shear modulus, it will take a large force applied in this
direction to deform the cube. Gases and fluids can not
support shear forces. That is, they have shear modulii of
zero. From the equations given above, notice that this
implies that fluids and gases do not allow the propagation of
S waves.
y x
A F
/
/

=
Shear Modulus (cont.)
y x
A F
/
/

=
Bulk Modulus K
Imagine you have a small cube of the material making up
the medium and that you subject this cube to pressure by
squeezing it on all sides. If the material is not very stiff, you
can image that it would be possible to squeeze the material
in this cube into a smaller cube. The bulk modulus
describes the ratio of the pressure applied to the cube to the
amount of volume change that the cube undergoes. If k is
very large, then the material is very stiff, meaning that it
doesn't compress very much even under large pressures. If
K is small, then a small pressure can compress the material
by large amounts. For example, gases have very small Bulk
Modulus . Solids and liquids have large Bulk Modulus.
v v
A F
K
/
/

=
v

Hookes law in
macroscopic form
ku f =
Hookes law in
microscopic form
M =
The linear relationship between the stress and
strain in the elastic part of the deformation
process can be well described by the Hookes
law in a simple form of
= M, and a complete form of:
is called the Lames constant and
it related to Yongs modulus E and
Poissons ratio .
Any change in rock or soil property that causes , , or K to change
will cause seismic wave speed to change. For example, going from
an unsaturated soil to a saturated soil will cause both the density and
the bulk modulus to change. The bulk modulus changes because air-
filled pores become filled with water. Water is much more difficult to
compress than air. In fact, bulk modulus changes dominate this
example. Thus, the P wave velocity changes a lot across water table
while S wave velocities change very little.
Although this is a single example of how seismic velocities can
change in the subsurface, you can imagine many other factors
causing changes in velocity (such as changes in lithology, changes in
cementation, changes in fluid content, changes in compaction, etc.).
Thus, variations in seismic velocities offer the potential of being able
to map many different subsurface features.
Seismic velocity vs materials mechanic properties
Seismic Velocities related to material properties
Vp- P-wave (compressive wave) velocity
Vs- S-wave (shear wave) velocity
So, seismic velocities are determined by the mechanic properties of the
materials in which the seismic waves propagate through.
From: Sheriff and Geldart, Exploration Seismology, p69.
Rock C (psi) S (psi) T (psi) Ex10
6
(psi) (deg) Gs n(%)
Readings:
Ch. 6
Homework:
1, what is the seismic S-wave velocity in the near surface earth
given:
Density = 2500 kg/(m
3
), the shear modulus = 10
10
Pa.
2, if the Poissons ratio is 0.25 (this is known as the Poisson
condition which can be a nominal value for the Poissons ratio of
earth materials), what is the P-wave velocity in the same material
as in Question 1 (check the relations of elastic parameters in the
table).