DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS

CE 3530: INTRODUCTORY ROCK MECHANICS (July – Nov 2013, SLOT-F)

Assignment I: Due date 13th September 2013

1. In a series of triaxial compression test on a weak sandstone, the following represent the stresses at
peak load conditions,
Test σ3 MPa σ1 MPa

1 2 45
2 5 68
3 10 96
4 15 121

Determine values of c and φ that best fit the data.

2. A Sandstone composed of quartz and feldspar grains with calcite cement is 82mm in diameter
and 169mm long. On saturation in water, its wet weight is 21.42N, after oven drying its weight is
20.31N. Calculate its wet unit weight, its dry unit weight and its porosity.
3. A sandstone with porosity of 15% is composed of a mixture of 70% quartz grains (sp. grav 2.65)
and 30% pyrite grains (sp. grav 4.9). Determine its dry density.
4. An insitu plate load test result on a test pit is as below,

800

700

600

500
Load (KN)

400

300

200

100

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

Deformation (mm)

Circular base plate of 600mm diameter was used. Calculate the elastic and deformation modulus
for the last three cycles. What is the importance of the ratio Ee/Ed. Assume Poisson’s ratio is 0.3.