Investigation of natural stone reinforcement quality made with epoxy resin

Our country is among the advantageous countries in the field of natural stone mining with its reserves. Our natural stone exports meet more than half of the total mineral exports. Natural stone mining is a process that starts with the extraction of the stone from the quarry as a block and includes processing these blocks as semi-finished products. In terms of sustainability, maximum efficiency and minimum waste are aimed both in the production of blocks and in the process of cutting the blocks into slabs. The block yield and the slab yield from a block depend entirely on the geological (structural) properties of the natural stone. Open discontinuity planes control the block yield in the quarry, while closed discontinuity planes control the slab yield from the block. In this study, the quality of the reinforcement made by impregnating the blocks with closed discontinuity planes with epoxy resin under negative pressure (bundling) after being covered with net and nylon was measured. This strengthening includes the processes of cutting bundling blocks with gangsaw and turning them into boards and reinforcing one surface of these boards with epoxy resin and net. The quality of the reinforcement was measured by physico-mechanical tests on four 2 cm thick limestone slabs, which were strengthened by bundling in the factory environment and then reinforced with epoxy and net on one surface. The porosity and water absorption values of the reinforced natural stones decreased by 50-70%. There was no significant change in their density and wear amount. The most obvious effect of the reinforcement was in the compressive, tensile and bending strengths. After strengthening, the compressive strength of natural stones increased by 200-250%, tensile strength by 220-350% and bending strength by 250-400%.