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Experimental and statistical investigation of the mechanical properties

of limestone rocks in Lebanon

M. Mrad, G. Saad, G.R. Chehab & R. Mrad

American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

ABSTRACT:  Limestone is an abundant source of rock in countries worldwide. It is widely used in the
construction industry to produce various sizes of aggregates and dimension stone for building applica-
tions. Given the extensive utilization of aggregates, knowledge of its fundamental mechanical properties
is essential for determining the properties and performance of products and projects in which it is incor-
porated. This study presents the results of a laboratory-based experimental program performed on lime-
stone rock cores collected from three different quarries in Lebanon, namely Aarsal, Kelya, and Tamnine.
A total of 80 cores were tested to determine the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus (E).
Also studied is the variability in the mechanical properties of limestone in Lebanon as a function of the
source of the origin rock. The analysis extends to incorporate relevant data from literature. The studied
variability is modeled by fitting a probabilistic distribution to the experimental data obtained using the
Chi Square Goodness of Fit test. Finally, a linear regression model that relates the elastic modulus of
limestone to the uniaxial compressive strength is developed using all the data gathered.

1  INTRODUCTION Concrete and asphalt concrete in addition to

unbound base and sub base material in flexible
Aggregate is a raw material used abundantly in pavements.
the construction of buildings, transportation To incorporate limestone aggregates in large
infrastructure, among other projects of the built scale engineering projects, it is essential to study
environment. In pavement construction, aggre- their two major mechanical properties; i.e., uniaxial
gates constitute approximately 90 percent and 80 compressive strength and elastic modulus. Knowl-
percent of asphalt and Portland Cement Concrete edge of the mechanical properties of aggregates is
pavement mixes (Tepordei, 1997), respectively; essential for the design and analysis of buildings
therefore, their consumption is the largest among and pavements structures given their serious impli-
other construction materials (Sullivan, 2006; cations on the overall performance and service life
Brown et al., 2007). In particular, the production of these structures, let alone, the cost associated
of limestone aggregates accounts for 50% to 70% with their maintenance and rehabilitation.
of the total production of construction aggregates To illustrate, the role of aggregates mechanical
(Oates, 2008; Aquino et al., 2010). properties is investigated in the context of pavement
Limestone is a sedimentary rock formation engineering. Figure 1 shows that in pavements, the
extensively abundant in several countries includ-
ing Lebanon, United States of America, Japan,
Turkey among others (Bliss et al., 2008). The wide
distribution of limestone deposits throughout the
world and easy access to the material are two of the
main advantages that led to its numerous applica-
tions. Limestone has been used as a key component
in the production of cement (Hooton & Thomas,
2002), raw material in the production of lime for soil
treatment, as a filler in industrial products such as
rubber, plastic, paint and others (Oates, 2008) and
as dimension stones for both interior and exterior
buildings application (Turgut et al., 2008). How-
ever, the two main applications of limestone are
in the construction field where it is used as coarse
aggregate for the production of Portland Cement Figure 1.  Factors affecting the design of pavements.

33
design of the layers is based on several input vari-
ables such as the traffic loading, environment, and
material properties which are stochastic in nature
(Dalla Valle & Thom, 2015). Therefore, the use of
deterministic values for these variables increases the
level of risk associated with the design. This has led
highway authorities around the world to move from
the deterministic design approach towards a proba-
bilistic design (Dalla Valle & Thom, 2015).
A host of researchers have attempted to model
the stochastic nature of aggregates mechanical
properties by measuring the elastic modulus of dif-
ferent type of rocks. The reported range found in
the literature falls within the range of 20 to 200 GPa
(Chunsheng, et al., 2014). In particular, the elastic
modulus of limestone ranges between 16.548 GPa
and 66.882  GPa (Al-Shayea, 2004; Palchik &
Hatzor, 2002). Other studies in South eastern Mex-
ico, Turkey, China, and Canada reported averages
of 8.34 GPa, 13.6 GPa, 17.77, and 31.5 GPa respec-
tively for limestone (May-Crespo, et al., 2012;
Turgut, et al., 2008; Zhang, et al., 2009; Lam, et al.,
2007). The differences in the values of the elastic
modulus can be mainly attributed to the variations
in the lithological composition, in addition to the
physical and chemical properties of the rock beds.
Thus, the need for an accurate probabilistic char-
acterization of the material properties rises.
The main objective of this study is to propose
a probabilistic approach to determine the elas-
tic modulus of limestone. Moreover, the study
presents two regression models that can be used to
predict the elastic modulus of limestone from the
measured uniaxial compressive strength.
each were obtained from Tamnine, and Aarsal;
whereas twenty prisms were obtained from Kelya.
2.2  Specimen preparation
Two cylindrical samples of diameter 50  mm and
length 125  mm were cored and cut from each
prism. The dimensions of the cores meet ASTM
D7012 specifications, where the length to diam-
eter ratio should range between 2:1 and 2.5:1 with
a minimum core diameter of 47  mm. A total of
80 limestone cores were obtained for unconfined
Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) and Elastic
modulus (E) testing.
The periphery section of the drilled prisms
was then crushed into coarse and fine aggregates
of different sizes ranging between 75  µm (#200
sieve) and 19  mm using a laboratory crusher.
Figures  3(a) through (c) show the preparation
process of the cores. The absorption and Saturated
Surface Dry density (SSD) of the aggregates were
then obtained (Table 1).
2.3  Testing
A closed loop servo hydraulic testing machine
with a capacity of 150 tons was used to test the
limestone cores. The cores were tested under a
monotonic uniaxial compressive load at a displace-
ment rate of 1 mm/min until failure. Four vertical
Linear Variable Displacement Transducers
(LVDT) placed at 90 degrees from each other were
used to measure the axial displacement of the
cores as shown in Figure 3(d).

2  EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

2.1  Materials
For the case of Lebanon, a study conducted by
Darwish et al. (2011) shows that the highest number
of quarries is located in the Bekaa region which is
situated between Mount Lebanon to the west and
Anti-Lebanon Mountains to the east. The stra-
tegic location of the Bekaa between two parallel
mountain ranges made it a host to approximately
44% of the total number of quarries in Lebanon.
With this fact, this study sampled specimens from
rock beds from three quarries located in three dif-
ferent regions in the Bekaa. The three quarries are
located in Aarsal, Tamnine, and Kelya covering the
Eastern, Middle and Western Bekaa areas respec-
tively, as shown in Figure 2. This will help in identi-
fying the effect of the lithological properties, if any,
on the elastic properties of limestone aggregates.
Prismatic specimens with the following dimensions Figure 2.  Map showing the locations of the three quar-
were obtained: 15 cm × 15 cm × 20 cm. Ten prisms ries in the Bekaa area, Lebanon.

34
Figure 3.  (a) Prisms obtained from the quarries, (b) Drilling cores from the prisms, (c) capping of the cores for testing
and (d) testing setup for the elastic modulus and uniaxial strength measurement.
Table  1.  Absorption and SSD of coarse and fine
crushed aggregates.
Aggregate Size Range Absorption (%)
Coarse (19 mm – 9.5 mm) 1.4
Fine (4.5 mm – 75 μm) 2 2.65
3  RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Tests for determining the uniaxial compressive
strength and elastic modulus of 80 limestone cores
were conducted and its data analysed.
3.1  Effect of source
The limestone cores were grouped according to
source: Aarsal, Tamnine and Kelya. This aims at
investigating the effect of the lithological properties
of each rock bed on its elastic properties. Values
of the elastic modulus for Aarsal varied between
31.5  GPa and 67.3  GPa, between 34.1  GPa and
72.9  GPa for Kelya, and between 28.3  GPa and
68.7  GPa for Tamnine. Figure  4 shows the distri-
bution of the elastic modulus with the minimum,
first quantile, median, third quantile and maximum
for each source. A one-way analysis of variance on
the means of the elastic modulus at a confidence
interval of 95% yields a p-value of 0.9. This indi-
cates that there is no statistical difference between
the medians of the different sources. This could be
attributed to the significant variability within each
source. Such large variability between specimens
of the same source is primarily attributed to the
heterogeneity of each sample, given the presence
of impurities, longitudinal cracks, voids and small
quantities of quartz. Figure 5 illustrates the causes
of heterogeneity that are suggested to lead to such
wide variability in the elastic modulus of limestone.
SSD
2.63
Figure 4.  Box and Whisker plot for the elastic modulus
of limestone cores.
3.2  Probabilistic characterization of the elastic
modulus
As mentioned previously the measured elastic
modulus varies significantly from one sample to
the other. Such variability necessitates considering
the mechanical properties probabilistic rather than
deterministic, especially for accurate and realistic
prediction of mechanical properties of products,
materials, layers, and other elements that they are
embedded in. The example of pavement design
as mentioned previously can be used to illustrate
the impact of wide variability in the properties of
aggregate on the outcome. Such impact is due to
the effect of aggregate properties on the modulus
and strength of the asphalt concrete or Portland
cement concrete, as well as on the modulus of the
aggregate base and sub base layers.
To account for the inherent variability of aggre-
gate properties, a probabilistic distribution of such
properties, such as the elastic modulus, is necessary.
In this study, a distribution represented by the mean
35
Figure 5.  Sources of heterogeneity: (a) presence of impurities, (b and c) variable mineralogical composition of lime-
stone, (d) longitudinal cracks and (e) presence of minerals such as quartz.
Figure  6.  Histogram and fitted normal distribution for
the elastic modulus of limestone sources used in this study.
and standard deviation is selected. Figure 6 shows
a histogram of the experimental data fitted against
a bounded Normal distribution with a mean of
48.2  GPa, standard deviation 8.8  GPa and lower
and upper bounds of 28 GPa and 71 GPa, respec-
tively. A Chi—square Goodness of fit test was used
to measure the suitability of the normal distribution
to the experimental data. The test yielded a p-value
of 0.9 indicating that the normal distribution with
a mean of 48.2  GPa and standard deviation of
8.8 GPa is a good representation of the data.
3.3  Relationship between the elastic modulus and
compressive strength
The elastic modulus data from the experimental
study and literature were plotted against corre-
sponding compressive strength values, as presented
in Figure 7. The plot shows a scatter in the values
of the elastic modulus which explains the factors
affecting this parameter as previously mentioned.
In addition, the data takes into consideration other
factors such as the direction of loading (parallel
36
versus perpendicular) and the degree of satura-
tion (dry versus saturated). The model presented in
Figure  7 shows a positive correlation between the
elastic modulus and compressive strength plotted in
log-log scale. A regression analysis of the data was
conducted to establish a relation between the two
mechanical properties. The power formulation was
found to best fit the data as presented in Equation 1:
E = 0.346 σ 1.05 (1)
where E and σ represent the elastic modulus in GPa
and compressive strength in MPa, respectively.
The fitted model can be used to estimate the
elastic modulus of limestone from the compres-
sive strength for a compressive strength ranging
between a lower boundary of 5  MPa and upper
boundary of 200 MPa. The model exhibits a high
adjusted coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.89
indicating that it is able to explain 89% of the vari-
ability in the data. The statistical parameters of the
fitted model are shown in Table 2.
The lower and upper bounds of the confidence
interval as shown in Figure 7 present the bounds
for the mean prediction of the elastic modulus by
the proposed model at a confidence level of 95%.
However, the bounds of the prediction interval
provide an estimate for which individual future
observations will fall. In fact, the mean predic-
tion of the elastic modulus is typically the average
of several individual predictions. Therefore, the
uncertainty associated with a mean prediction is
lower than that of the individual prediction. This
is illustrated in Figure 7 where the bounds of the
confidence interval are narrower than those of
the prediction interval. The bounds of the predic-
tion interval show that 95% of the individual data
points fall within this range.
Figure 7.  Proposed model for the elastic modulus of limestone versus compressive strength.

Table 2.  Summary of the statistical parameters.

limestone from regions within Lebanon is consid-
Intercept Estimate of Residual ered. The relationship between the elastic modu-
standard the slope standard lus of limestone and its compressive strength
error standard error error for the case of Lebanon can be best described
using an exponential formulation as presented in
0.07 0.02 0.46 Equation 2:

E = e3.3 + 0.0007σ (2)

where E and σ represent the elastic modulus in

GPa and compressive strength in MPa, respec-
tively. The fitted model fits the data most closely
for a compressive strength of limestone ranging
from 45 MPa to 95 MPa. The model will still be
able to predict the elastic modulus for a compres-
sive strength outside the previously mentioned
range; however, with less reliability. The adjusted
coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.245. This
indicates that the model is able to explain approx-
imately 25% of the total variability.

Figure 8.  Proposed model between the elastic modulus
of limestone and compressive strength for Lebanon only.
3.3.1  Case of Lebanon
Given that the experimental data obtained in this
study is extensive, a localized model for Lebanon
is presented in Figure 8. This localized model nar-
rows down the variability of the predictions when
4  CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The elastic modulus of limestone aggregate is
important in the design of buildings and pave-
ments since aggregates constitute a major part of
these composite models. This study presents an
approach to develop a probabilistic distribution
for the elastic modulus of limestone along with the
associated uncertainty. The study shows that the

37
elastic modulus of limestone in Lebanon follows
a normal distribution with a mean of 48.2  GPa
and standard deviation 8.8  GPa. The large value
of the standard deviation proves further the need
for a probabilistic distribution. The presented dis-
tribution will help in decreasing the level of risk
in design and analysis of composite materials and
structures. In addition, the study proposes two
relations between the elastic modulus of limestone
and its compressive strength. The first relation is
generic and described by a power formulation:
E = 0.346 σ 1.05 . This relation utilizes 341 data
points collected from several studies and therefore
can be used by engineers and researchers from
around the world to estimate the elastic modulus
of limestone. The second relation is specific to the
case of Lebanon and described by the exponential
formula: E = e3.3+ 0.007 σ using experimental data
obtained from laboratory testing.
It is important to note that the need for a rela-
tion to estimate the elastic modulus of limestone
and specifically for Lebanon is timely because it
is expected that significant amount of aggregates
will be quarried in Lebanon for the cement pro-
duction during the post-war reconstruction in the
region.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research team is grateful for the support of the
University Research Board (URB) at the Ameri-
can University of Beirut (AUB). The authors
acknowledge the technical support provided by
the manager and technicians of the Structural
and Materials Lab at the American University of
Beirut.
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