APPLICATION OF P-WAVE VELOCITY FOR PREDICTION OF STRENGTH PROPERTIES OF ROCKS

In this paper, the relationship between p-wave velocity and the most important strength properties of rock material has been studied. During this research eight various types of rocks from north-west of Iran have been tested view pointed of uniaxial compression strength (UCS), tensile strength (Brazilian test) and elastic modulus. Regression analyses between above parameters and p-wave velocity reveals that there is a mathematical relationship with exponential equation (R(2) = 0.8597) between p-wave velocity and uniaxial compression strength of tested rocks. Also, the obtained results show that with increasing of p-wave velocity the tensile strength (Brazilian test) of samples increases exponentially (R(2) = 0.8613) and the elastic modulus increases logarithmically (R(2) = 0.9231).