THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Assignment 1 CSE579 Advanced Rock Engineering
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Name: Student ID:
1. (a) Direct and indirect tensile strength tests were carried out on 60 mm diameter cylinder
granitic rock specimens. The results are shown in Table Q1a. Determine the direct and
indirect tensile strength of the granite specimens. Discuss the results between the tests.
Direct
Brazilian test
Tensile test
Specimen size (mm) 30 (thickness) 200 (length)
Failure load (kN) 35.5 11.3
Table Q 1a
(b) A stress strain curve of a rock specimen under uniaxial compression test is shown in
Fig. Q1a.
Axial stress (MPa)
Strain
i. Determine the UCS of the specimen.
ii. Determine the Young’s modulus (tangent, average, and secant). Use 50% UCS
whenever applicable. Which Young’s modulus is more representative of the rock
property and why?
iii. Determine the Poisson’s ratio at 50% UCS.
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2. Uniaxial compression and point load tests were carried out on 60 mm diameter cylinder
rock specimens. Determine the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and standard point
load strength I50 of granite specimens. Discuss the results between the UCS and I50.
Uniaxial Standard point load test
compression
Diametrical Axial Irregular lump test
test
test test
Specimen size (mm) 120 120 60 L×D×W=119×75×83
Failure load (kN) 585 30.13 47.10 55.56
3. A rock slope was formed in a high strength sandstone rock mass as shown in Fig. 2a. It is a
hand excavation cut slope. Two stable joint sets and one weak bedding plane exist. The
conditions of the bedding and the joints are shown in the table below and all oriented
favorable to the slope development. The spacing of joint is 150-300 mm. Rock cores are
collected as shown in Fig. 2b (note that there are 80 mm diameter cores and 50 mm diameter
cores). The uniaxial compressive strength of an intact rock sample from this site is 105 MPa.
The water condition is dry.
Conduct rock mass classification using RMR and Q systems.
Fig. Q5a
Joint Joint condition
Vertical joint set 1 Rough with separation less than 1 mm, no infilling but stain only
Vertical joint set 2 Rough with separation less than 1 mm, no infilling but stain only
Bedding plane Rough and planar with no separation
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Fig. Q5b
4. Two sets of shale specimens were selected for physical properties test. The results of the
testing are shown in the table below.
Sample Size Weight (kg) Retained Retained
(mm) weight weight
st
Dry Submerged Saturated after 1 after 2nd
cycle cycle
L=120
Cylindrical 0.85 0.91
D=60
Lumps varies 0.65 0.45 0.71 0.52 0.3
(a) Determine the dry density, saturated density, moisture content, porosity, and void ratio
of the cylinder and lumps specimen (hint: use Archimedes' principle to estimate the
volume of the lumps). Discuss why the values between cylinder and lump specimens
are different. The density of water is 1000 kg/m3.
(b) After the density test, the lump samples were used for slack and durability index test.
Determine the durability index of the shale.
5. A granitic rock sample is composed of a matrix of 30% quartz, 30% plagioclase, 30% augite,
and 10% muscovite. Its longitudinal wave velocity measured in the laboratory is 3200 m/s.
The sample is weighted by a spring scale. Its dry, submerged, and saturated weights are 0.85
kg, 0.55 kg, 0.96 kg, respectively. Describe its state of fissuring, provide reasoning, and state
the assumptions.
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