Effect of wetting/drying and heating/cooling cycles on geomechanical behavior of mudrocks in the Lutitas de macanal formation

Abstract

The mudrocks are weatherable materials, an intrinsic condition of mineralogy and sedimentary formation. In the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes lies this rocky material, which implies the degradation of physical and mechanical properties in the face of environmental factors, such as changes in humidity and temperature that are intensively propitiated in the tropical climate of the region, factors not considered in the design of civil works. The present study determines an experimental procedure in laboratory to reproduce the effect of the cycles of wetting/drying and heating/cooling in conditions and periods similar to the original ones of the geomaterials, by means of the steam equilibrium technique and thermal change, the processes were carried out on rock cores extracted from the Lutitas de Macanal formation that emerges in the municipality of Pajarito, Boyacá, Rancheria sector, Colombia. The results quantitatively determined the degradation of Young’s module and the resistance to uniaxial compression with the applied treatments, having a greater effect on the heating/cooling cycles in a period equal to that of wetting/drying generating greater damage to the rock due to pronounced cracking.