The investigation of anistropic properties of Belevi black marbles from Selçuk-İzmir

The marble quarry which is located 2 km north of Belevi Village of Selçuk/Izmir and 1 km east of İzmir-Aydın highway, is operated by Aydın Lignite Mining and Marble Corporation in which block production is made from black colored marbles that offer prominent lineation. This study investigates the anisotropic features of the Belevi black marble, which has prominent lineation, and the effect of these features on the durability of the rock. A total of 411 samples were produced from rock blocks taken from the marble quarry where İzmir-Selçuk Belevi black marbles were extracted, depending on the foliation planes contained in the rock, as applicable to the test standards at 0°, 45° and 90° angles and the tests were carried out on these samples. In the experiments in order to determine the anisotropic features of the Belevi black marble whose mineralogical, chemical and physical features have been detected, mechanical properties of the marble such as uniaxial pressure, point load strength index, brazilian (indirect) tensile strength and Bohme abrasion resistance and the change of these features depending on the relationship between loading direction and foliation angle were established. In the second stage of the study, accelerated weathering tests such as wetting-drying, thermal shock, freezing-thawing and heating-cooling tests were applied and the behaviors of the rock under different environmental corrosive effects were investigated and the differences of these changes according to the direction of foliation, in other words the durability were investigated. At the last stage of the study, the durability of the rock was classified by various methods such as dry and water saturated uniaxial compresive strenght ratio, saturation coefficient, static rock durability index, and the relationship between the durability and anisopropic properties of the rock was investigated.