Determination of material and rock mass properties of conglomerates deposits and evaluation of rock bearing capacity

Abstract

Colluvial sediments, generally considered as rock material, are geological formations that are transported from mountainous areas and accumulate at lower elevations and are partially attached with various cementing materials. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the engineering properties of colluvial deposits, which are widely seen as foundation soil in Denizli. Sampling is the major problem in engineering geological characterization of conglomerate units, mostly preparation of standard test samples is not possible. For construction design, bearing capacity values of the conglomerate unit were determined by methods that take into account both rock material and rock mass properties. Theoretical bearing capacity methods, which are based on intact rock properties have given very high bearing capacity values due to high internal friction angle values. The concept of bearing capacity, which is also of great importance in terms of construction design, continues to be a complex issue for rocks as well as for soils. In this study, block samples were collected from foundation excavations and core samples were carefully prepared. The basic physical properties of the samples were determined and then uniaxial, triaxial compressive strength tests were carried out. In addition, seismic velocity values obtained from geophysical measurements were also obtained and all parameters were used in bearing capacity calculations. It was observed that it would be more consistent to prefer rock bearing capacity calculation approaches in which rock mass properties are used should be used for weak rocks such as conglomerate.