Showing posts with label shear strength. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shear strength. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Mechanical Properties of Rock Material

Compressive Strength:-
Compressive strength is the capacity of a material to withstand axially directed
compressive forces. The most common measure of compressive strength is the uniaxial compressive strength or unconfined compressive strength. Usually compressive strength of rock is defined by the ultimate stress. It is one of the most important mechanical properties of rock material, used in design, analysis and modelling.
Young's Modulus and Poisson’s Ratio:-
oung's Modulus is modulus of elasticity measuring of the stiffness of a rock material. It is defined as the ratio, for small strains, of the rate of change of stress with strain. This can be experimentally determined from the slope of a stress-strain curve obtained during compressional or tensile tests conducted on a rock sample.
Similar to strength, Young’s Modulus of rock materials varies widely with rock type. For extremely hard and strong rocks, Young’s Modulus can be as high as 100 GPa. There is some correlation between compressive strength and Young’s Modulus, and discussion is given in a later section.Poisson’s ratio measures the ratio of lateral strain to axial strain, at linearly-elastic region.For most rocks, the Poisson’s ratio is between 0.15 and 0.4.
Stress-Strain at and after Peak:-
With well controlled compression test, a complete stress-strain curve for a rock specimen can be obtained.
Strain at failure is the strain measured at ultimate stress. Rocks generally fail at a small strain, typically around 0.2 to 0.4% under uniaxial compression. Brittle rocks, typically crystalline rocks, have low strain at failure, while soft rock, such as shale and mudstone, could have relatively high strain at failure. Strain at failure sometimes is used as a measure of brittleness of the rock. Strain at failure increases with increasing confining pressure under triaxial compression conditions.
Rocks can have brittle or ductile behaviour after peak. Most rocks, including all
crystalline igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, behave brittle under uniaxial compression. A few soft rocks, mainly of sedimentary origin, behave ductile.
Tensile Strength:-

Tensile strength of rock material is normally defined by the ultimate strength in tension, i.e., maximum tensile stress the rock material can withstand.
Rock material generally has a low tensile strength. The low tensile strength is due to the existence of microcracks in the rock. The existence of microcracks may also be the cause of rock failing suddenly in tension with a small strain.
Tensile strength of rock materials can be obtained from several types of tensile tests: direct tensile test, Brazilian test and flexure test. Direct test is not commonly performed due to the difficulty in sample preparation. The most common tensile strength determination is by the Brazilian tests.
Shear Strength:-
Shear strength is used to describe the strength of rock materials, to resist deformation due to shear stress. Rock resists shear stress by two internal mechanisms, cohesion and internal friction. Cohesion is a measure of internal bonding of the rock material.
Internal friction is caused by contact between particles, and is defined by the internal friction angle, φ. Different rocks have different cohesions and different friction angles. Shear strength of rock material ca be determined by direct shear test and by triaxial compression tests. In practice, the later methods is widely used and accepted.

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Determination of block punch strength index.


SCOPE:-
  • This test is used to determine the shear strength of rock. So, from this test we can estimate the strength of a material or component against the type of yield or structural failure where the material or component fails in shear.
  • Shear strength testing is used to determine the load at which a plastic or film will yield when sheared between two metal edges. Shear strength results are important to designers of film and sheet products that tend to be subjected to shear loads, or in applications where applied crushing loads are a risk.
  • The block punch strength index test is intended as an index test for the strength classification of rock materials. It is also be used to predict other strength parameters with which it is correlated, for example uniaxial compressive and tensile strength.
APPARATUS:-
  • Universal testing machine
  • Vernier caliper
  • Steel fixture/assembly
  • Rock disc
THEORY
Shear Force:-
A force which is applied parallel to the sections is known as Shear force. The shear force is simply calculated as the maximum force applied divided by the shear area (punch circumference x specimen thickness).
Shear Strain:-
The distortion produced by Shear Stress on an element or Rectangular Block is shown in the diagram. The Shear Strain or "Slide" can be defined as the change in the right angle.It is measured in Radians and is dimensionless.
Shear Stress:-
The intensity of internal resistance when the applied force is parallel to the section being sheared is called shear stress. OR If the applied load consists of two equal and opposite parallel Forces which do not share the same line of action, then there will be a tendency for one part of the body to slide over or shear from the other part. If the section L M is parallel to the forces and has an area “A” then the average Shear Stress.
Shear Strength:-
Shear strength in engineering is a term used to describe the strength of a material or component against the type of yield or structural failure where the material or
component fails in shear. A shear load is a force that tends to produce a sliding failure on a material along a plane that is parallel to the direction of the force. When a paper is cut with scissors, the paper fails in shear.
In structural and mechanical engineering the shear strength of a component is important for designing the dimensions and materials to be used for the manufacture/construction of the component (e.g. beams, plates, or bolts) In a reinforced concrete beam, the main purpose of stirrups is to increase the shear strength.
Punch Shear Test:-
This test method is intended as a comparative test, and not as a quantitative measure of the shear strength of the material.  As a materials screening test it does have the advantages of requiring a simple specimen and utilizing a simple test procedure.
Rock specimens in the form of thin cylindrical discs prepared from cores or blocks are placed into an apparatus which is designed to fit the point load device, and are broken by the application of load by a rectangular rigid punching block.
PROCEDURE:-
  • Measure the diameter of steel bar and find its cross sectional area.
  • Measure the dia and length of sample and also find its radius.
  • Fix the lower jig and upper jig in the machine.
  • Fix the zero error of the machine.
  • Place the steel sample Sover the lower jig.
  • Apply the shear load until the bar gets sheared.
  • Apply the load gradually and note the reading when the bar gets sheared.
  • Calculate the shear strength by using the relationship
The load is then gradually applied to the specimen at a constant rate such that failure occurs within 10–60 s as suggested by ISRM for point load strength. Fracturing is thus forced to take place along two parallel planes on which the normal stress is considered to be zero while the tensile stresses caused by bending are reduced. The load Ft D which is the load required for the failure of a specimen of any diameter and any thickness is recorded. After failure, theoretically, the specimen is broken into three parts, the two ends which are fixed in the apparatus and the middle part of the specimen which is punched out. The test should be rejected as invalid if the parallel fracture planes are either absent or not fully developed (irregular failure) or cross joints develop.

COMMENTS:
  • For engineering purposes the Block Punch Index test seems to be as good as other index tests in indirectly assessing strength, especially if only little rock material is available.
  • BPI test was not an accurate device for directly determining shear strength of the rock specimen and should only be used as a strength index.