The study of relationship between the modulus of elasticity and compressive strength for rocks

The modulus of elasticity (E) is an important rock property which is used in the design of several engineering projects such as slopes, tunnel and mining excavations. However, it is difficult to obtain the modulus of elasticity directly and high-quality cores are needed for the experiments. For this reason, indirect methods to estimate the modulus of elasticity, are gaining importance. The most significant deficiency of these methods aiming at estimating the modulus of elasticity by using different correlation techniques is that some of them are based on insufficient data. In this study, the relations between the uniaxial compressive strength of the rocks (UCS) and elastic modulus for different lithologies were investigated by using 139 data obtained from the drill holes within the corresponding area of Kadikoy-Kartal metro line. As a result, a good relationship between the modulus of elasticity and the compressive strength is found and it is shown that this relationship changes according to the litology and that the modulus of elasticity may be estimated via these relationships.