Complex analysis of uniaxial compressive tests of the Mórágy granitic rock formation (Hungary)

Understanding the quality of intact rock is one of the most important parts of any engineering projects in the field of rock mechanics. The expression of correlations between the engineering properties of intact rock has always been the scope of experimental research, driven by the need to depict the actual behaviour of rock and to calculate most accurately the design parameters. To determine the behaviour of intact rock, the value of important mechanical parameters such as Young’s modulus (E), Poisson’s ratio (ν) and the strength of rock (σ_cd) was calculated. Recently, for modelling the behaviour of intact rock, the crack initiation stress (σ_ci) is another important parameter, together with the strain (σ). The ratio of Young’s modulus and the strength of rock is the modulus ratio (M_R), which can be used for calculations. These parameters are extensively used in rock engineering when the deformation of different structural elements of underground storage, caverns, tunnels or mining opening must be computed. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between these parameters for Hungarian granitic rock samples. To achieve this goal, the modulus ratio (M_R = E/σ_c) of 50 granitic rocks collected from Bátaapáti radioactive waste repository was examined. Fifty high-precision uniaxial compressive tests were conducted on strong (σ_c >100 MPa) rock samples, exhibiting the wide range of elastic modulus (E = 57.425–88.937 GPa), uniaxial compressive strength (σ_c = 133.34–213.04 MPa) and Poisson’s ratio (ν = 0.18–0.32). The observed value (M_R = 326–597) and mean value of M_R = 439.4 are compared with the results of similar previous researches. Moreover, the statistical analysis for all studied rocks was performed and the relationshipbetween M_R and other mechanical parameters such as maximum axial strain (εa,max)$\left( {{\varepsilon }_{\text{a,}\,\text{max}}} \right)$for studied rocks was discussed.