Correlation Between P-Wave Velocity and Physical–Mechanical Properties of Intensely Jointed Dolostones, Peloritani Mounts, NE Sicily

• Published in: Rock mechanics and rock engineering Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 1711 - 1721
• Main Author: Pappalardo, Giovanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01-07-2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Civil Engineering; Dam foundations; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Engineering; Geology; Geophysics/Geodesy; Laboratory tests; Oil recovery; Radioactive wastes; Rocks; Slope stability; Studies; Technical Note; Velocity; Waste disposal; Wave velocity; Jointed dolostone; Peloritani Mounts; P-wave velocity; Physical rock properties; Uniaxial compressive strength; North-Eastern Sicily
• ISSN: 0723-2632; 1434-453X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00603-014-0607-8

Understanding the fracture inuence on the P-wave velocity and physicalmechanical properties of brittle rocks is very useful for geotechnical characterization in a number of engineering problems, e.g., slope stability, dam foundations, underground excavations, geothermal reservoirs, oil recovery, and nuclear waste disposal. After long-term geological evolutions and complicated conformations over millions of years, rocks have been submitted to accumulated stresses and there are various discontinuities at different scales, from meso- and microcracks to large faults and folds (Xie et al. 2011), affecting the rock mass behavior. Therefore, rock mass characterization is fundamental for a good assessment of its engineering properties. Moreover, the characterization of the intact rock, through laboratory tests on rock specimens (elementary volume), can play a signicant role for a careful characterization of the rock type.