Mechanical and physical properties of slate from Britannia Cove, Newfoundland

Abstract

The experimental investigation described in this study was carried out to determine the physical and mechanical properties (elastic moduli, Poisson’s ratio, compressive and tensile strengths, hardness and plane strain fracture toughness) of slate quarried from Britannia Cove, Bonavista, Newfoundland, Canada. Microscopic observations were carried out to determine layers’ orientation and thickness and the grain boundaries. All tests were carried out according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) procedures. The results obtained from this investigation were compared with those obtained from other published results for slate, mined from different parts of the world. It is seen that the present test results are compatible with other published results except for fracture toughness and direct tension tests. In fracture toughness tests, the calculated values using accepted empirical equations were much higher than the numerically computed values using finite element analysis (FEA). For the case of direct and indirect tension tests, the differences between our experimental values and previously published results were quite large.