Correlation of grain size with physicomechanical properties of Ma On Shan Marbles

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to quantify the relationships between the grain size characteristics and physicomechanical properties of selected marble rocks from Ma On Shan, Hong Kong. The rock specimens can be subdivided into white, light grey and dark grey, depending on the amount of impurities of the original limestones before metamorphism takes place. A series of laboratory tests, including the point load test, Schmidh hardness test, and uniaxial compression test, have been carried out on the same set of core samples in accordance with the procedures given by ISRM. Also microscopic observations based on the double replica method have been made to quantify the microphysical characteristics, in particular the grain size. The results are statistically analyzed and some selected physical and mechanical properties of the marble rocks are plotted against each other in order to explore possible relationships. The study in particular examines the influence of gain size characteristics on the engineering properties of the chosen marble rocks.