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MECHANICAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ROCK MATERIAL FROM COIMBRA SLOPES (CENTRAL PORTUGAL)

Pedro Santarém Andrade

Abstract

This work presents a mechanical and physical characterization of rock material from different slopes located in the town of Coimbra (Central Portugal) and its adjacent areas. The slopes are designated by numbers from 1 to 7. Slopes 1 and 2 are placed in Lower Jurassic Formations. Slope 1 is composed by marly limestones and marls. Slope 2 is constituted by dolomitic limestone. Lower Cretaceous Sandstones outcrop in Slope 3. Slope 4 is placed in the Finisterra Microplate and Slopes 5, 6 and 7 belong to the ?Schist-Greywaque? Complex, and are of Pre-Cambrian age. Slopes 4 to 7 are mainly composed by phyllites and metagreywaques. Several geotechnical characterization tests were performed, such as density and porosity, Point Load tests, determination of rebound hardness using Schmidt hammer and Slake Durability tests. Marly limestone and marls from Slope 1 show very high and medium durability, respectively. Rebound hardness values helped to define uniaxial compression strength values between 50 and 62 MPa for marly limestone. Sandstones from Slope 3 show a very low durability and a size-corrected point load strength index of 0.5 MPa. Metagreywaques from Slope 4 present a high durability. The size-corrected point load strength indexes of the phyllites and metagreywaques of Slope 7 values range from1.38 and 1.53 MPa and from 0.74 and 0.91 MPa, respectively. Possible relationships between the results of the mechanical and physical characterization were defined.

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