Issue 40

K. Kaklis et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 40 (2017) 18-31; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.40.02 18 Focussed on Recent advances in “Experimental Mechanics of Materials” in Greece Experimental investigation of the mechanical properties of Alfas stone Konstas N. Kaklis, Stelios P. Mavrigiannakis School Mineral Resources Eng., Technical Univ. of Crete, Greece kaklis@mred.tuc.gr , smaurig@mred.tuc.gr Zach G. Agioutantis Department of Mining Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY University, USA zach.agioutantis@uky.edu Emmanouil K. Steiakakis, Foteini K. Stathogianni School of Mineral Resources Eng., Technical Univ. of Crete, Greece stiakaki@mred.tuc.gr , stathof@hotmail.com A BSTRACT . This paper focuses on the experimental investigation of the mechanical properties of the Alfas natural building stone. Two series of uniaxial compression tests and indirect tensile tests (Brazilian tests) were performed in order to determine the uniaxial compressive strength and the indirect tensile strength respectively. Different sets of cylindrical specimens and circular discs were prepared by varying their geometry in order to examine the size effect on the respective strength values. Also, the size effect was investigated with respect to the calculated intact rock modulus and Poisson’s ratio. All specimens were prepared by following the ISRM suggested methods and the load was applied using a stiff 1600 kN MTS hydraulic testing machine and a 500 kN load cell. Strain was measured using biaxial 0/90 stacked rosettes appropriately attached on each specimen. K EYWORDS . Alfas; Building stones; Uniaxial compressive strength; Indirect tensile strength; Size effect. Citation: Kaklis, K., Mavrigiannakis, S., Agioutantis, Z., Steiakakis, E., Stathogianni, F., Experimental investigation of the mechanical properties of Alfas stone, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 40 (2017) 18-31. Received: 03.12.2016 Accepted: 09.01.2017 Published: 01.04.2017 Copyright: © 2017 This is an open access article under the terms of the CC-BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. I NTRODUCTION caling is a major issue for the analysis of large structures made of geomaterials (including rock and soil masses) studied and tested at a smaller scale. In laboratories the researchers are capable to measure the strength of a small specimen and need a scaling law to deduce the strength of a large structure. S