Investigation of the changes of physical and strength properties in different saturation and anisotropy conditions in Kermutdere formation sandstones

In this study, under different saturation and anisotropy conditions, physical and strength properties of sandstones which outcrop in the Mescitli region of Gümüşhane province were determined. The effects of varying saturation and anisotropy conditions on the determined properties were investigated. For this purpose, block samples were taken from the sandstones containing lamination planes. Based on the lamination plane of these samples, 225 test samples were prepared according to the standards at 0º-30º-45º-60º and 90º direction. Petrographical investigations were carried out on 11 samples. As a result of petrographical assessments the sandstones were classified as lytic subarkoses and lytıc arkoses. At the end of experimental studies, it was determined that in sandstones dry unit weight values vary between 25.73-26.38 kN/m3, saturated unit weight values vary between 25.94-26.51 kN/m3, water absorption by weight values between 0.42-0.95 %, water absorption by volume values between 1.13-2.53 %. However, due to different saturation and anisotropy conditions in sandstones ıt was determined P wave velocity ranges between 4046-5444 m/sec and S wave velocity between 2126-3114 m/sec. The dynamic elasticity modulus of sandstones varied between 31.83- 59.56 GPa and the dynamic poisson ratio varied between 0.07 and 0.36. In this study, the uniaxial compressive strength and the indirect tensile strength values were determined. In sandstones, uniaxial compressive stress value varied between 61.2-182.2 MPa and indirect tension strength value varied between 6.8-14.4 MPa. The sandstones were evaluated according to the strength anisotropy and were in the "low anisotropy" class. As a result of the evaluations made, it was observed that the samples parallel to the laminations generally had higher wave velocity values than the samples perpendicular to the laminations. It has been found that P wave velocities increase with a constant orientation angle depending on the saturation conditions, although there is an increase in the S wave velocity, there is no regular change. It was determined that the strength properties were higher in the dry and perpendicular and parallel to lamination planes samples and the strength with saturation decreased.