See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/315906997

Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock

mechanical parameters in laboratory uniaxial compression tests

Article  in  Engineering Geology · March 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023

CITATIONS READS

8 251

6 authors, including:

Jie Cui Quan Jiang

Hainai University Chinese Academy of Sciences
16 PUBLICATIONS   186 CITATIONS    103 PUBLICATIONS   1,090 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Shaojun Li Xia-Ting Feng

Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics,Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
118 PUBLICATIONS   1,968 CITATIONS    474 PUBLICATIONS   6,251 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Time-dependent behavior of hard rock under true triaxial compression View project

rock engineering View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Quan Jiang on 08 March 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

ENGEO-04536; No of Pages 15
Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering Geology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enggeo

Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical
parameters in laboratory uniaxial compression tests
Jie Cui a,b, Quan Jiang a,⁎, Shaojun Li a, Xiating Feng a, Meizhu Zhang a,b, Bing Yang a,b
a
State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430071, China
b
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The inhomogeneous variability of natural rock always leads to the uncertainty of the parameters gained from the
Received 24 August 2016 compressive testing data of a limited number of specimens. In this technical note, a systematic comparison for
Received in revised form 23 March 2017 two presented classical approaches, i.e. the Yamaguchi's “decision of the sample number approach (DSNA)”
Accepted 26 March 2017
and the “confidence interval approach (CIA)”, is firstly made to identify the cause of discrepancy in the number
Available online xxxx
of required specimens evaluated with different methods. Based on the advantages of both methods, the confi-
Keywords:
dence interval dynamic process approach (CIDPA) is proposed to dynamically determine the number of required
Rock variability specimens during the test process. This presented technical method can effectively avoid the waste of rock spec-
Number of required specimens imens while ensuring the accuracy of parameters under a given confidence level. In addition, all of the methods
Uniaxial compression test mainly used for the uniaxial comprehensive strength with the Gaussian distribution are extended to obtain a re-
Mechanical parameters liable elastic modulus that usually obeys lognormal distribution. Finally, uniaxial compression tests of oblique
Confidence interval porphyritic basalt (OP-basalt) and amygdaloidal basalt (Am-basalt) are analyzed to verify the contrast between
the results obtained with different approaches and the rationality of CIDPA.
© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (Sabatakakis et al., 2008). Therefore, problems arise with respect to

Rock mass, as a natural resource, has been increasingly exploited and
utilized for the construction of water-power engineering, nuclear
power projects, tunneling, underground cities, etc. to meet the ever-
changing requirements of society. For effective design of these geotech-
nical engineering projects, laboratory uniaxial compression test of intact
rock specimens is the essential procedure to acquire the uniaxial com-
pressive strength and elastic modulus, which are the necessary input
parameters of the stability analysis (Bieniawski, 1974; Pitts, 1985;
Tsesarsky, 2012; Jiang et al., 2016). In the 12th ISRM international con-
gress on rock mechanics, Hudson emphasized that “although a great
deal of work has been conducted on the mechanical behaviour of intact
rock (i.e., without Discontinuities), there are still unsolved problems re-
lating to its IANE nature (Inhomogeneous, Anisotropic and Not Elastic)
(Hudson, 2011)”. It is exactly the rock inhomogeneity and variability
of rock fabric that give rise to the various degrees of uncertainty in the
parameters, even when the best possible methods are adopted (Liu
et al., 2004; Luo et al., 2012). The variability of parameters is particularly
significant in laboratory uniaxial compression test which is more sensi-
tive to the inhomogeneity induced by micro-defects in the rock
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qjiang@whrsm.ac.cn (Q. Jiang).
how many specimens we should test to obtain a parameter and how
much the deviation extent of the adopted value from the true mean of
the parameter would be.
A variety of suggested standards have been established to address
the first problem of minimizing the parameter deviation (Gill et al.,
2005a), as follows:
• The International Rock Mechanics Bureau (IRMB) presents the
corresponding number of specimens required in uniaxial com-
pression tests when the deviation of the uniaxial compressive
strength with different variabilities is controlled within 20% at
95% confidence level. For instance, nine specimens are needed
when the variation coefficient of uniaxial compressive strength
is 30% (Protodyakonov, 1969).
• The Canada Center for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET)
recommends that at least three uniaxial compression tests
should be performed (Gyenge and Ladanyi, 1973).
• The International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) suggests
that the number of specimens required for uniaxial compression
tests should be determined from practical consideration, but at
least five specimens is preferred (Bieniawski and Bernede, 1979).
• The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifies
that the sample size may depend on the availability of samples,
but it is preferable to perform at least 10 tests (ASTM, 2003a,b).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
0013-7952/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
2 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
Due to the inconsistency of analysis methods and experiential judg-
ments, the above standards suggest different numbers of specimens for
uniaxial compression tests. Those standards are implemented for a wide
variety of rocks without a clear notion of the reliability degree of the ob-
tained parameters. Although the critical aspect that the number of re-
quired specimens depends on the variability of rock parameters has
been noted by the above standards, a fixed number of specimens is usu-
ally considered due to the poor practicability induced by the diversity of
standards, particularly for people without rich experience. However, the
different lithological characteristics, the weathering conditions or the
damage degrees may cause obvious differences in the variability of the
rock mechanical parameters (Yamaguchi, 1970; Rohde and Feng,
1990; Přikryl, 2001; Ruffolo and Shakoor, 2009; Song et al., 2011).
Situations of insufficiency or waste of the specimens are more likely
to occur in actual tests with a fixed number of specimens. E.T. Brown has
noted that, “despite the advances that have been made and the sophis-
ticated approaches being used for rock and rock mass property estima-
tion on some rock engineering projects, and the widespread availability
of the ISRM Suggested Methods, the writer's experience has been that
some practicing engineering geologists and geotechnical engineers do
not have an adequate understanding of the purposes, complexities
and requirements of good testing and rock property estimation pro-
grams” (Brown, 2011). Therefore, a more flexible application of the
test standards based on their established purposes must be analyzed.
Statistical methods have also been widely used to determine the
number of specimens for uniaxial compression tests, which are summa-
rized into two representative methods, the “decision of the sample
number approach (DSNA)” (Yamaguchi, 1970; Ruffolo and Shakoor,
2009) and the “confidence interval approach (CIA)” (Smith, 1986; Gill
et al., 2005a,b; Borradaile, 2013). The DSNA was firstly introduced by
Yamaguchi (1970) and applied to analyze a mass of test data of uniaxial
compressive strength of granite, andesite and sandy tuff. Yamaguchi
pointed out that for the determination of uniaxial compressive strength
at least 10 specimens were required. On the basis of CIA, Gill et al.
(2005a) established an algorithm that minimizes the sample size lead-
ing to the required precision index while respecting the target confi-
dence level and emphasized that the number of required specimens is
connected with the rock type, which could not be evaluated without a
priori test results. Ruffolo and Shakoor (2009) used the DSNA and CIA
to analyze the minimum number of required specimens according to
approximately 50 uniaxial compressive strength data points of five dif-
ferent rock types. They concluded that the minimum number of speci-
mens required to guarantee b20% deviation from the true strength
value were 10 for the DSNA and 9 for the CIA. The application of statis-
tical theory to analyze the number of required specimens has brought
about a deeper understanding for the reliability of parameters, which
is the necessary precondition for subsequent analytical work. However,
the inconsistence of the conclusions drew from different approaches
greatly weakens the practicability and reference value of those ap-
proaches because more doubts about the approach itself are forming,
due to the lack of comprehensive comparison and cognition.
In addition, the elastic modulus, another key parameter that is ex-
pected to be obtained from the uniaxial compression test, generally
obeys normal or lognormal distribution (Kim and Gao, 1995; Sari
et al., 2010). Nevertheless, the current methods are mainly created
based on the statistical theory of normal distributions (Yamaguchi,
1970; Gill et al., 2005a; Ruffolo and Shakoor, 2009). Consequently, in
the case of small samples in a laboratory test, whether the elastic
modulus could satisfy the accuracy requirement needs to be fur-
ther explored to establish a more sophisticated evaluation system
of the number of specimens required in uniaxial compression
test.
Following the above introduction, an analytic extension of the DSNA
is firstly carried out to avoid the dependence of the determination pro-
cess of the number of required specimens on the specific experimental
data and analysis process. Then, a comparison between the results
Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
obtained from DSNA and CIA is performed, as well as the application
conditions for each method are highlighted. Combining the advan-
tages of both methods, the confidence interval dynamic process ap-
proach (CIDPA) is proposed to dynamically determine the number
of required specimens during the test process, which could reduce
the waste of rock specimens while ensuring the accuracy of param-
eters for a given confidence level. Furthermore, the methods, DSNA,
CIA and CIDPA, are complemented for reliable access to the elastic
modulus obeying a lognormal distribution. Finally, the uniaxial
compression test results of oblique porphyritic basalt (OP-basalt)
and amygdaloidal basalt (Am-basalt) are analyzed to verify the con-
trast of the results obtained for the different approaches and the ra-
tionality of CIDPA. In order to sufficiently and completely evaluate
the number of specimens required in a type of test, this work mainly
focuses on the uniaxial compression test, since all of the key param-
eters, i.e. uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus, ob-
tained from the uniaxial compressive test are of a known prior
distribution. However, it is important to note that the described ap-
proaches can be applied to any rock mechanical parameter obeying
normal or lognormal distributions.
2. Basic statistical equations for evaluating the parameter mean
value
Uniaxial compression tests of the same type of rock specimens
sampled from the study region are successively conducted to gain
the parameter information through continuous sampling. If more
rock specimens are tested, more closer will be the mean value to
the realistic average level of rock mechanical property in the study
region. The idea of conducting a high amount of tests is almost im-
practicable, due to the usually scarce number of specimens to be
tested, and to the time spent to carry out the tests. In addition, the ac-
curacy demand of the project with different security levels for the
rock mechanical parameter is different. Thus, the imperative matter
is to set up the relationship between the number of required speci-
mens and the accuracy of parameters to minimize the waste of spec-
imens at a certain confidence level.
2.1. Deviation estimation of the parameter mean value
The statistical inference of the mean value of rock mechanical pa-
rameter from the limited test data generally adopts the confidence in-
terval estimation method (Yamaguchi, 1970; Gill et al., 2005a,b;
Ruffolo and Shakoor, 2009). The random distribution characteristics of
uniaxial compressive strength can be well described by normal distribu-
tion (Sari and Karpuz, 2006; Sari, 2009; Cui et al., 2015). The confidence
interval estimation of uniaxial compressive strength is illustrated by the
following equation
s s
x−zð1−βÞ=2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ≤μ ≤x þ zð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1Þ
n−1 n−1
where n is the number of test specimens, x is the mean value of uni-
axial compressive strength of n tested rock specimens, s is the corre-
sponding standard deviation, μ is the true mean of uniaxial
compressive strength, β is the confidence level, whose recommend-
ed value is 95% in general, and z(1 − β)/2 and z(1 + β)/2 are the corre-
sponding lower and upper quantiles of standard normal distribution,
respectively.
s
Dev ¼ MAXðjx−μ jÞ ¼ zð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð2Þ
n−1
The true mean of parameter is within the confidence interval at the
given confidence level. Thus, the half-length interval is taken as the
index to measure the maximum deviation of the parameter mean
 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 3

value calculated with the limited test specimens from the true mean, as where t(1 − β)/2 and t(1 + β)/2 are the lower and upper quantiles of t dis-
shown in Eq. (2). tribution, respectively.
Student's probability distribution (t distribution) was proposed by
C:V W. S. Gosset (Student, 1908; Lehmann, 2012) to estimate the mean
Devp ¼ Dev=x ¼ zð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð3Þ
n−1 value of random variable in small-sample conditions (Montgomery
et al., 2009), as expressed in Eq. (7) through Eq. (10). The freedom de-
where C.V is the variation coefficient of rock mechanical parameter. gree of t distribution is n − 1. The variation of t-distribution quantiles
For effective contrast of the parameter deviation with different di- as freedom degrees realizes the target to correct the confidence interval
mensions, the coefficient of deviation, Devp, is defined in Eq. (3) by of mean value in the case of small samples, which has been used by
the normalization technique. Yamaguchi (1970) in the DSNA, by Gill et al. (2005a) in the CIA, and
0 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1 by Ruffolo and Shakoor (2009) in the DSNA and CIA to analyze the num-
s2y s2y s4y ber of required specimens in rock uniaxial compression tests.
exp@y þ −zð1−βÞ=2 þ A ≤μ ≤ ð4Þ
2 n 2ðn−1Þ
n
0 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1 ðn−1Þs2 ∑i¼1 ðxi −xÞ2
¼  χ 2 ðn−1Þ ð11Þ
s2y s2y s4y σ2 σ2
@
exp y þ þ zð1þβÞ=2 þ A
2 n 2ðn−1Þ
where σ is the population standard deviation of random variable.
In order to show the influence of the variation of sample standard
where y is the mean value of the elastic modulus after logarithmic trans- deviation value on the confidence interval or on the deviation of param-
formation and sy is the corresponding standard deviation. eter mean, an approach that direct corrects the sample standard devia-
0 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1 tion with chi-square distribution in small-sample conditions is used for
s2y s4y comparison. The statistical theorem indicates that the statistic con-
Devp L ¼ 1− exp@−zð1þβÞ=2 þ A ð5Þ structed with the sample standard deviation and population standard
n 2ðn−1Þ
deviation of random variable that obeys a normal distribution is subject
0 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1 to the chi-square distribution, as presented in Eq. (11) (Spiegel, 1961).
s2y s4y sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Devp U ¼ exp@zð1þβÞ=2 þ A−1 ð6Þ
n 2ðn−1Þ ðn−1Þ ðn−1Þ
s≤σ ≤ s ð12Þ
χ 2ð1þβÞ=2 ðn−1Þ χ 2ð1−βÞ=2 ðn−1Þ
The Cox method is applied to assess the deviation of the elastic mod- sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ulus obeying lognormal distribution (Olsson, 2000; Chami et al., 2007; ðn−1Þ
cmin ¼ ð13Þ
Bebu and Mathew, 2009). The confidence interval of elastic modulus χ 2ð1þβÞ=2 ðn−1Þ
is expressed in Eq. (4). Due to the skewness of lognormal distribution,
the lower and upper limits of confidence interval are different, and the sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ðn−1Þ
corresponding Devp of the mean value of modulus are shown in cmax ¼ ð14Þ
χ 2ð1−βÞ=2 ðn−1Þ
Eqs. (5) and (6), respectively.

2.2. Correction of small-sample information where χ 2ð1−βÞ=2 ðn−1Þ and χ 2ð1þβÞ=2 ðn−1Þ are the lower and upper
quantiles of chi-square distribution, respectively.
Under the comprehensive consideration of sampling limitation, test- Thus, the range of the variation of standard deviation values can be
ing efficiency, design requirements and cost of tests, the laboratory tests achieved under a certain confidence level, as shown in Eq. (12). The
are always falling within the context of small samples. When the num- boundary correction coefficients of sample standard deviation, cmin
ber of specimens is b 30, the confidence interval calculated by Eq. (1) and cmax, are expressed in Eqs. (13) and (14).
through Eq. (6) cannot be expected to always reach the required confi-
cmin C:V c C:V
dence level and Devp, mainly due to the significant variation of the sam- zð1−βÞ=2 pffiffiffi ≤Devp≤zð1þβÞ=2 max
pffiffiffi ð15Þ
ple standard deviation value around the population standard deviation. n n
With the increase of the number of specimens, the range of the variation
gradually decreases. Consequently, the influence of the variation of pa- Combining Eqs. (13), (14) and (3), the parameter Devp is obtained,
rameter standard deviation on the confidence interval and deviation as shown in Eq. (15).
must be taken into account to meet the confidence level in small-
Fc−t ¼ tð1þβÞ=2 ð16Þ
sample conditions.
 
s s Fc−cs ¼ zð1þβÞ=2 c min; cmax ð17Þ
x−tð1−βÞ=2 pffiffiffi ≤μ ≤x þ tð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffi ð7Þ
n n
where Fc-t and Fc-cs are the comprehensive factors of t and chi-square
C:V distributed correction methods, respectively.
Devp ¼ tð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffi ð8Þ
n It can be found that the deviation of the mean value calculated with
different methods is not the same. For a more intuitive comparison, the
For the lognormal-distributed parameters, comprehensive factor Fc of different correction methods is defined by
Eqs. (16) and (17) to avoid the influence of different statistical charac-
0 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1
s2y s4y teristics of variables on method contrasting. Fig. 1 shows the contrast
Devp L ¼ 1− exp@−tð1þβÞ=2 þ A ð9Þ result.
n 2ðn−1Þ
The deviation calculated with t-distributed correction method is a
0 fixed value, which is the direct representation of the mean value devia-
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1
s2y s4y tion based on strict statistical theory (Brandt, 2012; Weerahandi, 2013).
Devp U ¼ exp@tð1þβÞ=2 þ A−1 ð10Þ In contrast, the chi-square distributed correction method evaluates the
n 2ðn−1Þ
deviation in a range form. Because the latter puts the focus on the

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
4 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

the engineering design requirements, such as ± 5%, ± 15%,

±20%, etc.
(vi). From the graph, ni, on which the limit of confidence intervals is
equal to the mean value calculated with the defined Devp, is
the number of rock specimens required to test.

By means of sample division, the confidence intervals of various

combinations of parameter measurements in different groups are calcu-
lated at the given confidence level. The outmost endpoints of intervals
are chosen as the lower and upper limits of the confidence interval.
The theoretical thought can be described by the following equation
! !
sij sij
min xij −tð1−βÞ=2 pffiffiffiffi ≤μ ≤ max x j þ tð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffiffi
i
ð18Þ
ni ni
Fig. 1. Comparison of Fc between different correction methods.
where i is the serial number of groups with different number of speci-
mens, j is the serial number of the units composed of the same number
correction of standard deviation and ignores the inner link between the
of specimens in the group, ni is the number of specimens in the ith group,
mean value and standard deviation, the uncertainty of the mean value
xij is the mean value of the jth composition unit of measurements in the
deviation increases, which reduces the effectiveness of the evaluation
result and it is not suitable for precise evaluation. In Fig. 1, Fc-cs-A, the av- ith group, and sij is the standard deviation of the jth composition unit of
erage of the upper limitation Fc-cs-UL and lower limitation Fc-cs-LL of Fc measurements in the ith group.
with the chi-square distributed correction method is approximately The data processing of DSNA has obvious dependence on the specific
equivalent to Fc-t, especially when the number of specimens is N30. As test measurements, and the analytic process is time-consuming. For the
the number of specimens tends to infinity, both Fc-cs-A and Fc-t are sake of a full contrast between the DSNA and CIA, as well as the conve-
equal to the 5% bilateral quantile 1.96 at the confidence level of 95%. nient application of DSNA, the analytic extension of DSNA appears very
meaningful. The mean value deviation of the parameter calculated with
3. Contrasting analysis of DSNA and CIA the DSNA is composed of two parts: the deviation induced by the dis-
creteness of finite division units of the mean value itself and by the
The DSNA and CIA are the most widely used methods for determin- mean value deviation of the specific sample unit at the required confi-
ing the number of required specimens. Both methods consider the eval- dence level. The expression of the DSNA analytic extension for Dev
uation of confidence interval, but the differences in their applications and Devp are represented in the following Eqs. (19) and (20), respec-
lead to the discrepancy of the evaluation results. According to the tively.
DSNA and CIA, Ruffolo and Shakoor (2009) studied the number of re-
h in¼ni   N
quired specimens on the basis of uniaxial compressive strength of sev- s tð1þβÞ=2
Dev ¼ devðxÞn¼m
β
i
þ ½devðxÞ ¼ zð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffiffi  mi
eral types of rocks and objectively recognized that the number of β ni tð1þβÞ=2
required specimens analyzed with the DSNA was larger than that for s
ni
þ tð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffiffi ð19Þ
the CIA, under the same accuracy requirement of strength. Thus, com- ni
parative analysis is necessary for the flexible application of DSNA and
CIA.   N
C:V tð1þβÞ=2 C:V
Devp ¼ zð1þβÞ=2 pffiffiffiffi  mi þ tðn1þβ
i
Þ=2 pffiffiffiffi ð20Þ
ni tð1þβÞ=2 ni
3.1. Analytic extension of the DSNA

For the lognormal-distributed parameters, the lower and upper

The application steps of DSNA to evaluate the number of required
limits of Devp are listed in the following Eqs. (21) and (22), respectively.
specimens for reliable rock parameters are as follows:
" sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
(i). The mean value x and standard deviation s are calculated from s2y s4y tN
ð1þβÞ=2
the total measurements of target parameter. The number of Devp L ¼ 1− exp − zð1þβÞ=2 þ  mi ð21Þ
ni 2ðni −1Þ tð1þβÞ=2
total measurements is represented by the symbol N.
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi!#
(ii). All the measurements are divided into several units, each of s2y s4y
ni
which includes ni measurements. ni can be selected as 5, 10, 20, þtð1þβÞ=2 þ
ni 2ðni −1Þ
…, etc., increasing to N. The units containing the same number
of measurements make a group. The number of division units sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
in each group is represented by the symbol mi obtained by s2y s4y tN
ð1þβÞ=2
Devp U ¼ exp zð1þβÞ=2 þ  mi ð22Þ
round down [N/ni]. Then, the mean value xij and standard devia- ni 2ðni −1Þ tð1þβÞ=2
tion sij of each unit in every group are calculated. sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi!
s2y s4y
(iii). The parameter confidence intervals are calculated with Eq. (7) þtð1þβÞ=2 þ −1
based on the measurements of each unit at the given confidence ni 2ðni −1Þ
level. Then, the upper and lower endpoints of confidence inter-
vals are plotted on a graph vs. the number of measurements, ni, When the DSNA was firstly applied, Yamaguchi (1970) mentioned
included in the corresponding group. that “it is quantitatively meaningless to use a curve connecting the
(iv). Connecting the upper and lower outmost endpoints of the inter- mean values of the upper or lower limits of the 95% confidence limits.
vals in different groups on the graph, two boundary curves are Even if a curve connecting the mean values of the upper or lower limits
made. of the 95% confidence limits were used, it could only be useful on a com-
(v). The permissible Devp is decided, and the Dev-line is added on the parative basis.” The analytic extension equips the DSNA with definite
graph. The value of Devp could be arbitrarily decided according to physical meaning and simplifies its application process. The boundary

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
curves of deviation limits can be acquired directly based on the mean
value and standard deviation of the total measurements. Thus, the ana-
lytic extension could well avoid the bias and over correction of sample
standard deviation caused by its wider variation at smaller number of
specimens, which enhances the stability of evaluation result and reduce
the waste of rock specimens.
To verify the analytic extension of DSNA, the test data are randomly
sampled one by one from the normal distribution N (50, 102) to simu-
late the parameter obtaining procedure from the tests. The sampling
sizes are 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 100. The analytic extension solution
(AS) of the deviation limit curves of the mean value calculated by
Eq. (20) is well in agreement with the primary process solution (PS) cal-
culated step-by-step, as shown in Fig. 2, which demonstrates the ratio-
nality of DSNA analytic extension. Fig. 3 shows that the deviation limit
curves of the mean value obtained with the DSNA are influenced by
the total number of specimens. With the increase of total number of
specimens N, the number of sample division units mi at a smaller ana-
lyzing number of specimens ni markedly rises, which results in a larger
deviation contributed by the directness of the units. As ni grows, the in-
creasing range gradually decreases. Furthermore, the variation of the
standard deviation of total specimens with different numbers also rein-
forces the dependence of the analytic results of DSNA on the total num-
ber of specimens.
3.2. Theoretical basis of CIA
CIA directly adopts the statistical theory of confidence intervals to
estimate the number of required specimens. Based on a different correc-
tion method discussed in Section 2.2, CIA has different expression forms.
The Devp representation of CIA with the t-distributed correction meth-
od (CIA-t) and chi-square distributed correction method (CIA-cs) are
shown in Eqs. (8) and (15), respectively.
3.3. Systematic contrast of DSNA and CIA
The difference of the evaluations for the number of required speci-
mens is basically linked to the distinctness of the comprehensive factor
Fig. 2. Comparison of the AS and PS of deviation limit curves of the parameter mean calculated with the DSNA.
Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
5
Fig. 3. Influence of the total number of specimens N on the deviation limit curves of the
parameter mean calculated with the DSNA.
Fc, which depicts the correction degree of different methods on the sam-
ple standard deviation of mean value. The Fc comparison results of the
DSNA and CIA are plotted in Figs. 4 and 5, which show the influence of
different analytic methods on the final evaluation results in a more intu-
itive manner.
The evaluation results of DSNA and CIA-t are deterministic values,
and CIA-cs is a range. Under the small-sample conditions, the informa-
tion that can be obtained is the standard deviation of test specimens
but not the range of standard deviation. Thus, for a specific standard de-
viation, the range correction will lead to the increase of confidence in-
terval width, which is not beneficial for mastering the true mean and
adds the difficulty to deterministically evaluate the number of required
specimens. The deviation limit of the parameter mean value calculated
with the DSNA is larger than CIA-t, which causes the DSNA evaluation
for the number of required specimens to be more conservative. Compar-
ing Eqs. (8) and (20), the deviation of the parameter mean value calcu-
lated by DSNA completely contains the deviation part of CIA-t but also
counts in the deviation caused by the discreteness of measurement divi-
sion units, which increases with the total number of specimens. When
the total number of specimens tends to infinity, the mean value devia-
tion calculated with the DSNA is twice that of the CIA-t. According to
the change of total number of specimens for analysis, the relative
6 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Fig. 6. Relative relationship of the evaluation results (Devp and NR) with different
methods.

satisfying the required accuracy of rock parameter and reducing the

waste of specimens at a specified confidence level.

Fig. 4. Fc comparison of different approaches.

4. Confidence interval dynamic progress approach (CIDPA)

The approaches discussed above are all analyzed at a definite state,

relationship of the parameter Devp and the number of required speci-
mens (NR) acquired with different approaches is expressed in Fig. 6.
The key distinction of the parameters that obey normal and lognormal
distributions is between the arithmetic domain and the logarithmic do-
main. A transformed lognormal parameter is normally distributed in the
logarithmic domain. Thus, the contrast results of different approaches
are also absolutely suitable for the lognormal-distributed parameter in
the logarithmic domain.
To attain reliable parameters, different methods are adopted to cor-
rect the variation of sample standard deviation in small-sample condi-
tions. On the basis of the statistical theory adopted by various
methods and the relative relationship of their evaluation results, it can
be judged that the DSNA and the upper limit evaluation of CIA-cs
(CIA-cs-UL) are conservative for the number of required specimens
and that the lower limit evaluation (CIA-cs-LL) cannot satisfy the re-
quirement of confidence level. CIA-t reaches the confidence interval of
parameter mean value directly by considering the influence of the lim-
itation of specimens' number on the standard deviation and possesses
rigorous theoretical basis, which makes a more proper and rational
evaluation for the number of specimens required in tests. Therefore,
CIA-t is a better choice for obtaining the parameter mean value while
at which many tests of rock specimens have been carried out, and the
total data of investigated mechanical parameter is known. The work of
analyzing the existing database and evaluating the number of required
specimens could provide references for testing rocks with similar me-
chanical properties. Furthermore, the accumulation and summary of
the evaluation results regarding various types of rocks benefit to the es-
tablishment of general standards for the number of specimens required
in tests. However, rocks with different lithology, weathering degrees
and so on exhibit a great diversity of mechanical properties that are
mainly embodied in the absolute size and statistical characteristics of
mechanical parameters. In most cases, a reliable priori statistical proper-
ty of the rock existing in the specific geologic setting is not available,
which is the exact reason why the rock is being tested. The estimation
of the statistical characteristics of mechanical parameters of rocks ac-
companies the testing process. Thus, it is necessary to create a dynamic
progress approach to determine the number of specimens that is just
sufficient to acquire the parameter reliably and acts as a judgment stan-
dard for testing termination.
During the testing process, each step that judges whether the cur-
rent number of tested specimens is enough can be considered as a spe-
cific state analysis with the DSNA or CIA. According to the contrast

Fig. 5. Contrast of the deviation limit curves of parameter mean calculated with the DSNA and CIA.

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 7

results of the DSNA and CIA in Section 3.3, CIA-t is selected to analyze
the number of required specimens. From the computation way of Dev
in Eq. (2), the definition of Devp is conservative. The thought of estab-
lishing CIDPA is to reduce the high evaluation for the number of re-
quired specimens induced by the conservative definition of Devp and
to guarantee that the evaluated result reaches the required confidence
level, which is 95%. Thus, the sample mean and sample standard devia-
tion of current tested results after each new specimen information is
added are used to evaluate the number of required specimens. Accord-
ing to the confidence interval theory of mean, the number of required
specimens evaluated in each step possesses 95% confidence level. How-
ever, because of the variation of the standard deviation in small-sample
condition, each evaluation step obtains different number of required
specimens. Thus, during the testing process the smaller evaluated num-
ber of required specimens is updated until the actual tested specimens
Fig. 8. Verification for CIDPA with five sets of test data.
reaches to the newest updated specimen number, which reduces the
conservative evaluation for the number of required specimens as
much as possible. When the number of required specimens computed despite the data of five test sets being from the same hypothetical pa-
at the current test state is more than the number of specimens that rameter, the number of required specimens varies in a range. This indi-
have been tested, the rock test continues, and the standard deviation cates that the CIDPA evaluation result is related to the relative size of
of investigated parameter is updated. Thus, the minimal number of re- parameters successively generated during the test. However, the overall
quired specimens calculated with updating standard deviations is cho- tendency of the number of required specimens increasing with Devp re-
sen to avoid the waste of specimens and testing time. In consideration mains unchanged. It well verifies the effectiveness of CIDPA that actual
of the fact that the t-distribution quantile is large when the number of parameter deviations Devp′ calculated with the following Eq. (23) from
specimens is less than three, this will cause a much wider confidence in- the true mean at the end of tests are smaller than the deviation require-
terval than would occur with a larger specimen size. Thus, three speci- ment (Fig. 8).
men tests are conducted once at the beginning of test to reveal the
statistical information of rock mechanical parameters for the next calcu- jx−μ j
Devp0 ¼ ð23Þ
lation and judgment. The complete calculation flow is listed in Fig. 7. μ
The dynamic rock test procedure to obtain the target parameter is
simulated by random sampling from the hypothetical parameter obey-
ing N (50,102). During the simulation process, CIDPA is used to analyze 5. A case study of basalt uniaxial compression tests
if the mechanical parameter calculated with the current test specimens
meets the accuracy requirement and to determine the number of re- 5.1. Uniaxial compression tests of basalt specimens
quired specimens. Five sets of simulation tests (test 1–5) are carried
out and analyzed with CIDPA under different accuracy requirements. Basalt is a type of basic extrusive rock, generally composed with an
Fig. 8 shows that the number of required specimens increases and that amygdaloidal structure and porphyritic texture, with a significant vari-
the increase rate gradually grows with the improvement of demanded ability of the rock mechanic properties. Basalt is processed into cylindri-
accuracy, especially when the required Devp is b10%. In addition, cal specimens of 50 mm in diameter and 100 mm in height for uniaxial

Fig. 7. Evaluation process of CIDPA for the number of required specimens.

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
8 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
Fig. 9. Test result of the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and elastic modulus (E) of
basalts.
compression tests. To ensure the dimension accuracy and integrity of
specimens, 48 OP-basalt and 46 Am-basalt specimens were prepared
for testing after careful selection among the total processed specimens.
Uniaxial compression tests are implemented on the MTS815.03 pres-
sure testing system. The loading is controlled by the uniaxial deforma-
tion and the loading rate is 1 μm/s.
Am-basalt and OP-basalt exhibit a wide range of uniaxial com-
pressive strength and elastic modulus values (see Fig. 9), and
Tables 1 and 2 give the corresponding statistics. The C.V of uniaxial
compressive strength and elastic modulus is up to approximately
25%, which is a very high value, highlighting the importance of hav-
ing a reasonable evaluation of the number of required specimens be
tested.
5.2. Evaluation for the number of required basalt specimens
To figure out the applicability of the DSNA, CIA and CIDPA, the
distribution characteristics of uniaxial compressive strength and
elastic modulus are tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S)
distribution hypothesis testing method. The K-S test revealed that
the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus could be
well described by normal and lognormal distributions, respective-
ly, because the P-Values are all greater than the significance level of
5% (see Fig. 10). Thus, the methods of confidence interval evalua-
tion for the random variables obeying normal and lognormal distri-
butions are adopted by the DSNA, CIA and CIDPA to analyze the
number of required basalt specimens for uniaxial compression
tests.
The analysis results of uniaxial compressive strength and elastic
modulus with the DSNA (including primary process solution DSNA-PS
and analytic extension solution DSNA-AS), CIA-t and CIDPA are listed
in Tables 3 and 4. The corresponding analytic processes of DSNA and
CIA-t are shown in Figs. A1 and A2, and CIDPA's are expressed by
Tables A1 to A6 in the Appendix, from which the following five points
can be recognized.
(i). The analytic extension solution of DSNA is more stable than the
primary process solution, which effectively reduces the irregular
variation of evaluation results and avoids the inconsistency of the
results calculated from the upper and lower limit curves of the
Table 1
Statistical characteristics of the uniaxial compressive strength.
Sample Mean (MPa) Minimum (MPa)
OP-basalt 129.6 61.15
Am-basalt 127.06 63.01
Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
Table 2
Statistical characteristics of the elastic modulus.
Sample Mean Minimum Maximum Standard Coefficient of
(GPa) (GPa) (GPa) deviation (GPa) variation (%)
OP-basalt 30.74 19.69 50.08 7.70 25.5
Am-basalt 25.16 15.52 43.83 6.26 24.9
confidence interval of the parameter obeying a normal distribu-
tion.
(ii). On the basis of total test data at the final testing state, the DSNA
evaluation results of number of required basalt specimens are
more conservative than CIA-t's. As the accuracy of rock parame-
ter is improved, the difference increases.
(iii). The CIDPA is applied to the test process, and its evaluation result
depends on the standard deviation of real-time updated test
data. Though the analysis principles of CIDPA and CIA are the
same, there is absolutely no relationship in size due to the differ-
ence of their analysis objects. However, it is obvious that the eval-
uation result of DSNA is also more conservative than CIDPA's.
(iv). The calculation methods of the confidence interval of random
variable obeying normal and lognormal distributions are both
used to analyze the number of required specimens to obtain a re-
liable elastic modulus, whose optimal probability distribution is
the lognormal distribution. Table 4 exhibits that the number of
required specimens evaluated accurately with the lognormal-
distributed method is slightly larger than that evaluated approx-
imately with normal-distributed method, generally when the re-
quired Devp is N10%; this is because the skewness of elastic
modulus of both OP-basalt and Am-basalt is small. When the dis-
tribution skewness increases, the lognormal-distributed method
appears more important for the accurate evaluation of number of
required specimens to attain the required confidence level.
(v). The case study accumulates experience and knowledge of the re-
quired numbers of OP-basalt and Am-basalt specimens in uniax-
ial compression test, which is expressed in detail in the CIA-t
column of Table 3 and CIA-t-lognormal column of Table 4.
6. Conclusions
This work makes a comprehensive comparison between two typical
methods, i.e. DSNA and CIA, which are applied to determine the number
of required rock specimens for the uniaxial compression test to obtain
the mean value of relevant mechanical parameters satisfying a certain
accuracy at a given confidence level. On the basis of comparative analy-
sis results, an improved CIDPA is proposed to dynamically calculate the
number of required specimens during the test process. Main conclu-
sions of this work can be summarized as follows:
• The DSNA evaluation of the number of required rock specimens is
more conservative than the CIA-t. CIA-t is suggested for adoption on
the condition that the analysis object has a certain amount of available
specimen test data for experience accumulation.
• The proposed CIDPA can be well and easily applied to evaluate the
number of required rock specimens during the test process without
Maximum (MPa) Standard deviation (MPa) Coefficient of variation (%)
191.94 30.74 23.71
201.29 30.93 24.34
 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 9

Fig. 10. Distribution features of the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus for a OP-basalt; b Am-basalt.

Table 3 the reference of a priori experience of the variability, which could ef-
The number of required specimens to attain reliable uniaxial compressive strength. fectively reduce the waste of specimens while ensuring the accuracy
Devp Number of required specimens of target mechanical parameter.
• For a specific type of rock, the randomness characteristics of dif-
DSNA-PS DSNA-AS CIA-t CIDPA
ferent mechanical parameters could vary. The actual tested num-
LL UL ber of specimens in the same test should be determined according
Uniaxial compressive strength of OP-basalt to the evaluation result of the required number for the target pa-
30% 7 8 9 5 5 rameter or of the maximum evaluation number for the target
25% 9 9 11 6 6
parameters.
20% 12 12 15 8 8
15% 23 22 18 12 15
10% 26 33 31 24 25 Acknowledgements
5% N48 N48 N48 N48 N48

Uniaxial compressive strength of Am-basalt The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from
30% 10 7 9 5 9 State Key Research Development Program of China (Grant No.
25% 13 8 11 6 10 2016YFC0600707) and National Natural Science Foundation of
20% 21 10 13 8 12
15% 22 16 16 13 17
China (Grant No. 51379202 and 41372315).
10% 27 24 35 28 28
5% N46 N46 N46 N46 N46

Table 4
The number of required specimens to attain reliable elastic modulus.

Devp Number of required specimens

DSNA-PS DSNA-AS CIA-t CIDPA

Lognormal Normal Lognormal Normal Lognormal Normal Lognormal Normal

LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL

Elastic modulus of OP-basalt

30% 8 15 11 14 8 11 10 5 6 5 5 8 6
25% 11 17 21 17 10 13 12 6 7 6 7 9 8
20% 22 18 22 18 13 16 16 7 10 9 8 10 9
15% 23 19 42 24 18 19 19 11 15 14 11 12 11
10% N48 26 46 26 29 37 37 22 30 29 16 18 17
5% N48 N48 N48 N48 N48 N48 N48 N48 N48 N48 48–50 48–55 48–54

Elastic modulus of Am-basalt

30% 8 8 12 8 7 10 9 5 6 5 4 5 5
25% 11 8 14 8 9 12 11 5 7 6 5 6 5
20% 21 9 22 8 12 13 13 7 9 8 6 8 6
15% 23 12 41 9 15 16 16 11 14 13 10 11 10
10% 43 22 44 22 31 34 34 22 27 28 17 20 17
5% N46 N46 N46 N46 N46 N46 N46 N46 N46 N46 46–54 46–60 46–59

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
10 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Appendix

Fig. A1. Evaluation process of the number of required specimens for uniaxial compressive strength with DSNA and CIA.

(a)

(b)

Fig. A2. Evaluation process of the number of required specimens for the elastic modulus with DSNA and CIA: a Lognormal-distributed method; b Normal-distributed method.

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 11

Table A1
CIDPA analysis process of OP-basalt uniaxial compressive strength.

n Uniaxial compressive strength Accumulated S Number of required specimens Devp′

(MPa) x(MPa) (MPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

1 152.9 / / / / / / / / /
2 112.0 / / / / / / / / /
3 191.7 152.2 39.9 15 21 32 57 127 508 17.42
4 191.9 162.1 38.1 7 9 15 25 57 225 25.08
5 165.5 162.8 33.1 4 6 8 15 32 128 25.60
6 61.2 145.9 51.0 / 13 21 36 81 323 12.53
7 112.0 141.0 48.3 / / 18 32 71 281 8.79
8 109.7 137.1 46.0 / / 16 29 64 253 5.77
9 125.8 135.9 43.2 / / / 24 54 216 4.80
10 144.4 136.7 40.8 / / / 21 46 183 5.45
11 119.7 135.2 39.1 / / / 19 42 167 4.26
12 90.8 131.5 39.4 / / / 20 44 175 1.41
13 174.7 134.8 39.6 / / / 19 41 164 3.97
14 99.7 132.3 39.2 / / / 19 41 164 2.04
15 167.9 134.7 38.8 / / / 18 39 154 3.87
16 165.3 136.6 38.3 / / / / 36 143 5.35
17 139.0 136.7 37.1 / / / / 34 133 5.46
18 137.4 136.8 36.0 / / / / 31 124 5.49
19 114.9 135.6 35.3 / / / / 30 120 4.60
20 162.6 136.9 34.9 / / / / 29 114 5.64
21 128.9 136.6 34.1 / / / / 28 109 5.35
22 142.6 136.8 33.3 / / / / 26 103 5.56
23 140.7 137.0 32.5 / / / / 25 97 5.69
24 63.2 133.9 35.2 / / / / 30 119 3.31
25 114.6 133.2 34.7 / / / / 29 116 2.72
26 136.4 133.3 34.0 / / / / / 111 2.81
27 102.4 132.1 33.8 / / / / / 111 1.93
28 129.2 132.0 33.2 / / / / / 107 1.85
29 118.7 131.6 32.7 / / / / / 104 1.50
30 159.1 132.5 32.5 / / / / / 101 2.20
31 131.8 132.5 32.0 / / / / / 98 2.19
32 123.2 132.2 31.5 / / / / / 95 1.96
33 129.6 132.1 31.0 / / / / / 92 1.90
34 66.6 130.2 32.5 / / / / / 104 0.42
35 97.7 129.2 32.5 / / / / / 105 0.30
36 177.2 130.6 33.0 / / / / / 106 0.73
37 142.2 130.9 32.6 / / / / / 103 0.97
38 115.0 130.5 32.3 / / / / / 101 0.65
39 98.0 129.6 32.3 / / / / / 102 0.00
40 147.5 130.1 32.0 / / / / / 99 0.35
41 106.4 129.5 31.8 / / / / / 99 0.10
42 129.6 129.5 31.4 / / / / / 96 0.10
43 148.9 130.0 31.2 / / / / / 94 0.25
44 104.3 129.4 31.1 / / / / / 94 0.20
45 86.5 128.4 31.4 / / / / / 97 0.93
46 152.5 128.9 31.2 / / / / / 96 0.53
47 140.0 129.2 30.9 / / / / / 93 0.35
48 150.9 129.6 30.7 / / / / / 92 0.00

Note: (1) Each column of bolded and underlined numbers represents an actual evaluation process of the number of required specimens with CIDPA to obtain the parameter (uniaxial com-
pressive strength) mean satisfied the correspondingly required accuracy. The whole test results are list here to show the parameter calculated with limited number of specimens gradually
tends to the true value with the increase of the number of test specimens, which is not available in practical application with CIDPA because the test will be terminated when the required
accuracy is meet. The following tables are analogous. (2) The sample mean of total specimens listed in Tables 1 and 2 are approximately considered as the true mean to calculated the actual
parameter deviations Devp′ based on Eq. (23). The following tables are analogous.

Table A2
CIDPA analysis process of Am-basalt uniaxial compressive strength.

n Uniaxial compressive strength Accumulated S Number of required specimens Devp′

(MPa) x(MPa) (MPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

1 193.0 / / / / / / / / /
2 63.0 / / / / / / / / /
3 201.3 152.4 77.5 54 77 120 213 480 1917 19.96
4 113.5 142.7 66.2 25 35 55 98 219 874 12.29
5 146.7 143.5 57.4 14 20 31 55 124 494 12.93
6 70.1 131.3 59.4 16 22 34 61 136 542 3.31
7 150.0 133.9 54.7 12 16 25 45 100 400 5.41
8 126.1 133.0 50.7 10 14 21 37 82 326 4.64
9 111.0 130.5 48.0 8 12 18 32 72 288 2.72
10 137.3 131.2 45.3 / 10 16 28 62 245 3.25
11 124.4 130.6 43.0 / / 14 24 54 216 2.77
12 133.7 130.8 41.0 / / 12 22 48 191 2.97

(continued on next page)

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
12 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Table A2 (continued)

n Uniaxial compressive strength Accumulated S Number of required specimens Devp′

(MPa) x(MPa) (MPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

13 98.8 128.4 40.3 / / / 21 47 188 1.04

14 114.8 127.4 38.9 / / / 20 44 174 0.27
15 135.0 127.9 37.5 / / / 18 40 159 0.67
16 146.8 129.1 36.5 / / / 17 37 146 1.60
17 150.3 130.3 35.8 / / / 16 34 136 2.58
18 133.5 130.5 34.7 / / / / 32 126 2.72
19 178.7 133.0 35.5 / / / / 32 126 4.71
20 120.1 132.4 34.7 / / / / 31 121 4.21
21 139.0 132.7 33.8 / / / / 29 113 4.45
22 113.2 131.8 33.3 / / / / 28 111 3.75
23 81.5 129.6 34.1 / / / / 30 120 2.03
24 70.8 127.2 35.5 / / / / 34 134 0.10
25 90.2 125.7 35.5 / / / / 35 137 1.06
26 100.2 124.7 35.2 / / / / 34 135 1.83
27 151.9 125.7 34.9 / / / / 33 131 1.04
28 112.4 125.3 34.3 / / / / 32 127 1.42
29 113.1 124.8 33.8 / / / / / 123 1.75
30 102.2 124.1 33.4 / / / / / 122 2.34
31 107.7 123.6 33.0 / / / / / 120 2.76
32 89.2 122.5 33.0 / / / / / 122 3.60
33 106.4 122.0 32.6 / / / / / 119 3.98
34 131.7 122.3 32.2 / / / / / 115 3.76
35 113.6 122.0 31.7 / / / / / 112 3.96
36 149.7 122.8 31.6 / / / / / 110 3.35
37 134.9 123.1 31.2 / / / / / 106 3.09
38 160.5 124.1 31.4 / / / / / 106 2.32
39 146.7 124.7 31.2 / / / / / 103 1.86
40 87.0 123.7 31.4 / / / / / 106 2.60
41 159.8 124.6 31.5 / / / / / 105 1.91
42 141.5 125.0 31.2 / / / / / 102 1.60
43 120.3 124.9 30.8 / / / / / 100 1.68
44 164.8 125.8 31.1 / / / / / 100 0.97
45 156.4 126.5 31.0 / / / / / 98 0.44
46 151.9 127.1 30.9 / / / / / 97 0.00

Table A3
CIDPA analysis process of OP-basalt elastic modulus with the lognormal-distributed method.

n Elastic modulus Number of required specimens Devp′

(GPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL

1 32.7 / / / / / / / / / / / / /
2 25.1 / / / / / / / / / / / / /
3 40.5 9 16 14 22 22 33 42 56 99 121 415 459 7.74
4 42.4 5 9 8 13 13 18 23 31 54 66 227 251 15.46
5 24.7 5 8 7 11 11 16 20 27 47 58 198 218 8.45
6 20.7 / 9 8 12 12 18 23 30 53 65 223 246 1.72
7 23.9 / 8 6 10 10 15 19 25 44 54 185 204 1.84
8 31.6 / 6 / 8 8 12 15 21 36 44 149 165 1.31
9 29.8 / / / 7 / 10 13 17 30 36 124 137 1.57
10 32.0 / / / / / 9 11 15 26 31 107 118 1.03
11 29.8 / / / / / / 10 13 23 27 93 103 1.23
12 24.3 / / / / / / / 12 22 26 89 98 2.91
13 33.2 / / / / / / / / 20 24 82 91 2.07
14 26.1 / / / / / / / / 19 23 77 85 3.02
15 34.2 / / / / / / / / 18 22 73 81 2.06
16 29.5 / / / / / / / / 16 20 67 74 2.19
17 28.3 / / / / / / / / / 18 63 69 2.53
18 30.1 / / / / / / / / / 17 58 64 2.51
19 30.3 / / / / / / / / / / 55 60 2.46
20 34.7 / / / / / / / / / / 54 59 1.68
21 23.5 / / / / / / / / / / 55 61 2.73
22 27.8 / / / / / / / / / / 52 58 3.04
23 28.5 / / / / / / / / / / 50 55 3.23
24 20.6 / / / / / / / / / / 56 62 4.45
25 25.4 / / / / / / / / / / 55 60 4.98
26 26.1 / / / / / / / / / / 53 58 6.91
27 21.4 / / / / / / / / / / 56 61 6.30
28 30.7 / / / / / / / / / / 54 59 6.08
29 25.8 / / / / / / / / / / 52 58 6.44
30 36.1 / / / / / / / / / / 53 59 5.64
31 27.4 / / / / / / / / / / 52 57 5.81

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 13

Table A3 (continued)

n Elastic modulus Number of required specimens Devp′

(GPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL

32 23.5 / / / / / / / / / / 52 57 6.37
33 26.5 / / / / / / / / / / 50 55 6.60
34 19.7 / / / / / / / / / / 55 60 7.45
35 27.5 / / / / / / / / / / 53 59 7.54
36 36.3 / / / / / / / / / / 54 60 6.83
37 29.7 / / / / / / / / / / 53 58 6.73
38 25.2 / / / / / / / / / / 52 57 7.04
39 20.7 / / / / / / / / / / 54 60 7.69
40 22.4 / / / / / / / / / / 55 61 8.18
41 46.2 / / / / / / / / / / 64 70 6.78
42 42.9 / / / / / / / / / / 69 76 5.68
43 44.2 / / / / / / / / / / 74 82 4.54
44 35.7 / / / / / / / / / / 74 82 4.06
45 50.1 / / / / / / / / / / 84 92 2.59
46 38.0 / / / / / / / / / / 84 93 2.02
47 44.7 / / / / / / / / / / 88 97 1.01
48 45.2 / / / / / / / / / / 92 102 0.00

Table A4
CIDPA analysis process of Am-basalt elastic modulus with the lognormal-distributed method.

n Elastic modulus Number of required specimens Devp'(%)

(GPa)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL LL UL

1 29.1 / / / / / / / / / / / / /
2 20.2 / / / / / / / / / / / / /
3 31.9 9 17 14 23 23 34 42 57 100 123 422 466 8.74
4 24.8 4 7 6 9 9 13 16 22 38 46 158 174 5.88
5 29.9 / 4 4 6 6 8 11 14 24 30 101 111 8.43
6 15.9 / / / 10 10 15 19 26 45 55 188 208 1.35
7 26.1 / / / / / 12 15 20 34 42 142 157 1.61
8 23.4 / / / / / 10 12 16 28 34 114 126 0.47
9 23.9 / / / / / / 10 13 23 28 95 105 0.18
10 26.3 / / / / / / 9 12 20 24 82 91 0.28
11 21.6 / / / / / / / 11 18 22 75 83 1.06
12 21.4 / / / / / / / / 17 20 69 76 2.23
13 15.5 / / / / / / / / 22 27 90 100 4.93
14 20.3 / / / / / / / / 20 25 84 93 5.98
15 24.5 / / / / / / / / 19 23 78 86 5.77
16 28.6 / / / / / / / / 19 23 77 85 4.52
17 34.9 / / / / / / / / 21 26 87 96 1.95
18 26.8 / / / / / / / / / 24 82 91 1.47
19 33.5 / / / / / / / / / 26 87 96 0.39
20 21.7 / / / / / / / / / 24 83 92 0.33
21 23.5 / / / / / / / / / / 78 87 0.64
22 21.0 / / / / / / / / / / 76 84 1.39
23 18.7 / / / / / / / / / / 77 85 2.45
24 19.9 / / / / / / / / / / 76 84 3.24
25 21.4 / / / / / / / / / / 73 81 3.72
26 22.2 / / / / / / / / / / 70 78 4.80
27 23.7 / / / / / / / / / / 67 74 4.11
28 19.7 / / / / / / / / / / 66 73 4.75
29 19.7 / / / / / / / / / / 66 72 5.35
30 20.2 / / / / / / / / / / 64 71 5.84
31 20.3 / / / / / / / / / / 63 69 6.28
32 20.0 / / / / / / / / / / 62 68 6.73
33 17.9 / / / / / / / / / / 63 69 7.40
34 27.3 / / / / / / / / / / 62 69 6.93
35 23.4 / / / / / / / / / / 60 67 6.94
36 28.2 / / / / / / / / / / 60 67 6.41
37 23.8 / / / / / / / / / / 59 65 6.38
38 24.5 / / / / / / / / / / 57 63 6.28
39 24.0 / / / / / / / / / / 55 61 6.23
40 20.8 / / / / / / / / / / 54 60 6.51
41 43.8 / / / / / / / / / / 69 76 4.61
42 35.3 / / / / / / / / / / 74 81 3.54
43 27.3 / / / / / / / / / / 72 80 3.26
44 40.4 / / / / / / / / / / 81 89 1.82
45 35.5 / / / / / / / / / / 84 93 0.86
46 34.8 / / / / / / / / / / 87 96 0.00

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
14 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Table A5
CIDPA analysis process of OP-basalt elastic modulus with the normal-distributed method.

n Elastic modulus Number of required specimens Devp′

(GPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

1 32.7 / / / / / / /
2 25.1 / / / / / / /
3 40.5 12 17 26 46 103 409 6.68%
4 42.4 6 9 13 23 52 206 14.53
5 24.7 6 8 13 22 49 195 7.71
6 20.7 7 9 14 25 56 222 0.98
7 23.9 / 8 13 23 50 199 2.32
8 31.6 / 7 10 18 40 158 1.70
9 29.8 / / 9 15 33 132 1.87
10 32.0 / / / 13 28 112 1.29
11 29.8 / / / 11 25 99 1.44
12 24.3 / / / / 25 97 3.07
13 33.2 / / / / 22 88 2.22
14 26.1 / / / / 21 83 3.14
15 34.2 / / / / 20 77 2.18
16 29.5 / / / / 18 72 2.30
17 28.3 / / / / 17 67 2.62
18 30.1 / / / / / 63 2.60
19 30.3 / / / / / 59 2.53
20 34.7 / / / / / 57 1.76
21 23.5 / / / / / 59 2.80
22 27.8 / / / / / 56 3.10
23 28.5 / / / / / 54 3.28
24 20.6 / / / / / 59 4.52
25 25.4 / / / / / 59 5.03
26 26.1 / / / / / 57 5.43
27 21.4 / / / / / 60 6.35
28 30.7 / / / / / 58 6.13
29 25.8 / / / / / 57 6.48
30 36.1 / / / / / 57 5.68
31 27.4 / / / / / 56 5.85
32 23.5 / / / / / 56 6.40
33 26.5 / / / / / 55 6.63
34 19.7 / / / / / 59 7.49
35 27.5 / / / / / 57 7.58
36 36.3 / / / / / 58 6.87
37 29.7 / / / / / 56 6.77
38 25.2 / / / / / 56 7.07
39 20.7 / / / / / 58 7.72
40 22.4 / / / / / 59 8.21
41 46.2 / / / / / 71 6.79
42 42.9 / / / / / 77 5.69
43 44.2 / / / / / 84 4.54
44 35.7 / / / / / 83 4.07
45 50.1 / / / / / 95 2.58
46 38.0 / / / / / 95 2.01
47 44.7 / / / / / 98 1.00
48 45.2 / / / / / 102 0.00

Table A6
CIDPA analysis process of Am-basalt elastic modulus with the normal-distributed method.

n Elastic modulus Number of required specimens Devp′

(GPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

1 29.1 / / / / / / /
2 20.2 / / / / / / /
3 31.9 11 16 24 42 94 376 7.56
4 24.8 5 7 10 17 38 151 5.27
5 29.9 3 4 6 11 23 92 7.96
6 15.9 / / 10 18 40 160 0.53
7 26.1 / / / 14 30 120 0.96
8 23.4 / / / 12 25 100 0.02
9 23.9 / / / 10 22 85 0.58
10 26.3 / / / 8 18 72 0.07
11 21.6 / / / / 17 68 1.35
12 21.4 / / / / 17 65 2.48
13 15.5 / / / / 21 83 5.23
14 20.3 / / / / 20 80 6.24
15 24.5 / / / / 19 73 6.00
16 28.6 / / / / 18 71 4.76
17 34.9 / / / / 21 83 2.20
18 26.8 / / / / / 77 1.71

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
 J. Cui et al. / Engineering Geology xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 15

Table A6 (continued)

n Elastic modulus Number of required specimens Devp′

(GPa) (%)
30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

19 33.5 / / / / / 81 0.13
20 21.7 / / / / / 79 0.56
21 23.5 / / / / / 76 0.85
22 21.0 / / / / / 75 1.57
23 18.7 / / / / / 77 2.62
24 19.9 / / / / / 77 3.39
25 21.4 / / / / / 75 3.85
26 22.2 / / / / / 73 4.16
27 23.7 / / / / / 70 4.23
28 19.7 / / / / / 70 4.85
29 19.7 / / / / / 70 5.44
30 20.2 / / / / / 69 5.92
31 20.3 / / / / / 69 6.35
32 20.0 / / / / / 68 6.79
33 17.9 / / / / / 70 7.46
34 27.3 / / / / / 68 6.99
35 23.4 / / / / / 66 7.00
36 28.2 / / / / / 65 6.47
37 23.8 / / / / / 63 6.45
38 24.5 / / / / / 61 6.34
39 24.0 / / / / / 60 6.30
40 20.8 / / / / / 59 6.57
41 43.8 / / / / / 84 4.60
42 35.3 / / / / / 88 3.54
43 27.3 / / / / / 86 3.26
44 40.4 / / / / / 97 1.81
45 35.5 / / / / / 100 0.85
46 34.8 / / / / / 101 0.00

References
ASTM, 2003a. E122-00 standard practice for calculating sample size to estimate, with a
specified tolerable error, the average for characteristic of a lot or process. Book
Stand. 14 (02), 27–31.
ASTM, 2003b. Annual book of ASTM standards. Section 4, Construction. Soil Rock vol.
04.08.
Bieniawski, Z.T., 1974. Estimating the Strength of Rock Materials. National Mechanical En-
gineering Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
Bieniawski, Z.T., Bernede, M.J., 1979. Suggested methods for determining the uniaxial
compressive strength and deformability of rock materials: Part 1. Suggested method
for determining deformability of rock materials in uniaxial compression. Int. J. Rock
Mech. Min. Sci. Geomech. Abstr. 16 (2), 138–140.
Brown, E.T., 2011. Fifty years of the ISRM and associated progress in rock mechanics. In:
Qian, Q., Zhou, Y. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Rock Me-
chanics. CRC Press, Beijing, pp. 29–45.
Borradaile, G.J., 2013. Statistics of Earth Science Data: Their Distribution in Time, Space
and Orientation. Springer Science & Business Media.
Bebu, I., Mathew, T., 2009. Confidence intervals for limited moments and truncated mo-
ments in normal and lognormal models. Stat. Probab. Lett. 79 (3), 375–380.
Brandt, S., 2012. Data Analysis: Statistical and Computational Methods for Scientists and
Engineers. Springer Science & Business Media.
Cui, J., Jiang, Q., Feng, X.T., Gao, H., 2015. Theoretical probability distribution of shear
strength parameters for rock. Rock Soil Mech. 36 (5), 1261–1274 (in Chinese).
Chami, P., Antoine, R., Sahai, A., 2007. On efficient confidence intervals for the log-normal
mean. J. Appl. Sci. 7 (13), 1790–1794.
Gill, D.E., Corthesy, R., Leite, M.H., 2005a. Determining the minimal number of specimens
for laboratory testing of rock properties. Eng. Geol. 78 (1), 29–51.
Gyenge, M., Ladanyi, B., 1973. Sampling and specimen preparation. Pit Slope Manual Sup-
plement 3–5. vol. 77–29 Canmet Report. (30 pp.).
Gill, D.E., Corthésy, R., Leite, M.H., 2005b. A statistical approach for determining practical
rock strength and deformability values from laboratory tests. Eng. Geol. 78 (1),
53–67.
Hudson, J.A., 2011. The next 50 years of the ISRM and anticipated future progress in rock
mechanics. In: Qian, Q., Zhou, Y. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Con-
gress on Rock Mechanics. CRC Press, Beijing, pp. 47–55.
Jiang, X., Cui, P., Liu, C., 2016. A chart-based seismic stability analysis method for rock
slopes using Hoek-Brown failure criterion. Eng. Geol. 209, 196–208.
Kim, K., Gao, H., 1995. Probabilistic approaches to estimating variation in the mechanical
properties of rock masses. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Geomech. Abstr. 32 (2),
111–120.
Liu, H.Y., Roquete, M., Kou, S.Q., Lindqvist, P.A., 2004. Characterization of rock heterogene-
ity and numerical verification. Eng. Geol. 72 (1), 89–119.
Luo, Z., Atamturktur, S., Juang, C.H., 2012. Bootstrapping for characterizing the effect of
uncertainty in sample statistics for braced excavations. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. 139
(1), 13–23.
Lehmann, E.L., 2012. “Student” and small-sample theory. Selected Works of EL Lehmann.
Springer, US, pp. 1001–1008.
Montgomery, D.C., Runger, G.C., Hubele, N.F., 2009. Engineering Statistics. John Wiley &
Sons.
Olsson, U., 2000. Confidence Intervals for the Mean of a log-Normal Distribution. Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences.
Pitts, J., 1985. A Manual of Geology for Civil Engineers. World Scientific.
Protodyakonov, M.M., 1969. Method of determining the strength of rocks under uniaxial
compression. Mech. Prop. Rocks 1–8.
Přikryl, R., 2001. Some microstructural aspects of strength variation in rocks. Int. J. Rock
Mech. Min. Sci. 38 (5), 671–682.
Rohde, J., Feng, H., 1990. Analysis of the variability of unconfined compression tests of
rock. Rock Mech. Rock. Eng. 23 (3), 231–236.
Ruffolo, R.M., Shakoor, A., 2009. Variability of unconfined compressive strength in relation
to number of test samples. Eng. Geol. 108 (1), 16–23.
Sabatakakis, N., Koukis, G., Tsiambaos, G., Papanakli, S., 2008. Index properties and
strength variation controlled by microstructure for sedimentary rocks. Eng. Geol. 97
(1), 80–90.
Song, K.I., Cho, G.C., Lee, S.W., 2011. Effects of spatially variable weathered rock properties
on tunnel behavior. Probab. Eng. Mech. 26 (3), 413–426.
Smith, G.N., 1986. Probability and Statistics in Civil Engineering. Collins, London.
Sari, M., Karpuz, C., Ayday, C., 2010. Estimating rock mass properties using Monte Carlo
simulation: Ankara andesites. Comput. Geosci. 36 (7), 959–969.
Sari, M., Karpuz, C., 2006. Rock variability and establishing confining pressure levels for
triaxial tests on rocks. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 43 (2), 328–335.
Sari, M., 2009. The stochastic assessment of strength and deformability characteristics for
a pyroclastic rock mass. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 46 (3), 613–626.
Student, 1908. The probable error of a mean. Biometrika 1-25.
Spiegel, M.R., 1961. Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Statistics. McGraw-Hill.
Tsesarsky, M., 2012. Deformation mechanisms and stability analysis of undermined sed-
imentary rocks in the shallow subsurface. Eng. Geol. 133, 16–29.
Weerahandi, S., 2013. Exact Statistical Methods for Data Analysis. Springer Science & Busi-
ness Media.
Yamaguchi, U., 1970. The number of test-pieces required to determine the strength of
rock. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Geomech. Abstr. 7 (2), 209–227.

Please cite this article as: Cui, J., et al., Estimation of the number of specimens required for acquiring reliable rock mechanical parameters in
laboratory uniaxial compressio..., Eng. Geol. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.03.023
View publication stats