Elastic constants of Globigerina Limestone

Abstract

This study presents the results of an experimental investigation to establish the values for the elastic constants of globigerina limestone. For an isotropic solid there are only two such constants which are independent. The modulus of elasticity and Poisson's ratio are the more commonly estimated values by static tests. Research in this field of study has never been carried out for any local building material. This work has set out to investigate any available information, and various tests were carried out to identify ropronontative values for the modulus of elasticity and Poisson's ratio of globigerina limestone. The effect of saturation and bedding 'plane orientation, together with derivations for indicative values of tensile and dynamic elastic constants have also been investigated. Analyses of test results show that the modulus of elasticity may be taken at 21GPa and Poisson's ratio at 0.22. Investigations are in agreement with current assumptions for similar materials, in that the values for tensile modulus of elasticity are lower, and those for dynamic modulus of elasticity are higher, than the static values for direct compression. Moreover this work has also attempted to relate values of the elastic constants to other physical constants such as compressive strength, density and ultrasonic pulse velocity.