Correlation of geotechnical properties of basalts with ultrasonic velocity in Gaziantep region

The physical and mechanical properties of rocks are the most important concerns forgeotechnical engineering. The properties of rocks and soil that the construction willbe made on should be determined carefully. Large volume of basalt depositsdominantly exist in few areas of the Gaziantep Region. In this thesis, in order toremove the absence of studies about basalt in Gaziantep some rock mechanic testswere made with the exactly 179 samples collected from Gaziantep. Variety of basaltsamples were taken as samples for each test. Ultrasonic Velocity, Brazillian Tensile,Direct Shear, Uniaxial Compressive Tests were performed and index properties suchas dry-bulk-saturated densities, water absorbtion were determined on selectedspecimens in laboratory conditions. The tests were made according to InternationalSociety for Rock Mechanics ISRM (1981). The estimated ultrasonic velocity valueswere also correlated against the physical and mechanical properties of the Gaziantepbasalt and multiple correlation coefficient up to a R2 ≈ 0.67 was obtained.Key words: basalt, ultrasonic velocity, Brazillian tensile test, direct shear test,uniaxial compression test.