The poorly cemented Ciężkowice poorly sorted sandstone and the compact Mucharz fine grain sandstone have been laboratory tested at the triaxial compressing conditions in thermo-pressurized chamber of a rigid press MTS-815. The confining pressure: P = σ₂ = gσ₃ range from 0 to 96 MPa and the temperature: T from 22°C to 120°C (simulated 500 m intervals from the surface to the depth of 3500 m). During (the) each test, the characteristics of deformation and the elastic wave velocity paths were simultaneously monitored. The volume density and longitudinal wave velocity showed a non-linear increase with the progress of simulated depth, a volume density growth by 1.6 to 4.0%, and the elastic wave velocity up to 250% of the primary value (surface condition), dependable on loading path, phase of deformation, and varying type of lithology. That may lead to wide error margin in a determination of rock’s engineering properties and also create discrepancies between the static parameters of rocks (Est, gνst) determined by standard laboratory load tests, and the dynamic parameters (Ed, νd) determined from the wave velocity and volume density.
The ductility of High Performance Concrete (HPC) can develop both in tension and compression.This aspect is evidenced in the present paper by measuring the mechanical response of normalvibrated concrete (NC), self-compacting concrete (SC) and some HPCs cylindrical specimensunder uniaxial and triaxial compression. The post-peak behaviour of these specimens is definedby a non-dimensional function that relates the inelastic displacement and the relative stress duringsoftening. Both for NC and SC, the increase of the fracture toughness with the confinement stressis observed. Conversely, all the tested HPCs, even in absence of confinement, show practically thesame ductility measured in normal and self-compacting concretes with a confining pressure. Thus,the presence of HPC in compressed columns is itself sufficient to create a sort of active distributedconfinement.
The paper presents an approach to identify the state of fine sands on the basis of shear wave velocity measurement. Large body of experimental data was used to derive formulae which relate void ratio with shear wave velocity and mean effective stress for a given material. Two fine sands which contained 8 and 14% of fines were tested. The soils were tested in triaxial tests. Sands specimens were reconstituted in triaxial cell. In order to obtain predetermined void ratio values covering possible widest range of the parameter representing a very loose and dense state as well, the moist tamping method with use of undercompaction technique was adopted. Fully saturated soil underwent staged consolidation at the end of which shear wave velocity was measured. Since volume control of a specimen was enhanced by use of proximity transducers, representative 3 elements sets (i.e. void ratio e, mean effective stress p’ and shear wave velocity VS) describing state of material were obtained. Analysis of the test results revealed that relationship between shear wave velocity and mean effective stress p' can be approximated by power function in distinguished void ratio ranges. This made possible to derive formula for calculating void ratio for a given state of stress on the basis of shear wave velocity measurement. The conclusion concerning sensitivity of this approach to the fines content was presented.