International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of
Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrmms

Mechanical behavior of bimrocks having high rock block proportion

Mohammad Afifipour n, Parviz Moarefvand
Department of Mining and Metallurgy Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Hafez 424, Tehran 15875 4413, Iran

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Determination of mechanical behavior of geomaterials composed of block-in-matrix texture, particularly
Received 7 February 2013 having high rock block content, is a challenging task for engineers. In literature, these heterogeneous
Received in revised form materials also referred as bimrock (block-in-matrix rock). Preparation of undisturbed and representative
15 August 2013
samples of these materials is often extremely difficult. Fabrication of artificial (physical) model speci-
Accepted 22 November 2013
Available online 15 December 2013
mens in laboratory can be used to overcome this difficulty and to study the mechanical behavior of
bimrocks. Physical model bimrocks were prepared by stiffer rock blocks which were comprised 70–90%
Keywords: of the total weight, plus a softer cementing agent. Using a servo-control machine, uniaxial compression
Bimrocks tests were conducted on model bimrocks to obtain the mechanical parameters such as uniaxial
Uniaxial compressive strength
compressive strength (UCS), Young's modulus, failure strain and full-scale stress–strain curves. The
Servo-control machine
results showed a decreasing trend with exponential correlation in the UCS, Young's modulus and failure
Stress–strain curves
strain of specimens with increasing the rock block proportion (RBP). In the post-peak region of stress–
strain curves, strain softening was the dominant behavior and increasing RBP values in the specimens
made the post-peak behavior gentler.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Geomaterials with block-in-matrix texture are very complicated
heterogeneous materials that may cause challenging problems
during design and construction of structures in or on them. Well-
known examples of this class of materials are conglomerates [1–3],
breccias [4,5], mélanges [6,7], agglomerates [8,9], and coarse-
grained alluviums [10,11]. Some typical samples and outcrops of
bimrocks are illustrates in Fig. 1. As a general term, these formations
can be distinguished as “geomaterials with block-in-matrix texture”
that characterized by a heterogeneous structure including rock
blocks embedded in a fine-grained matrix. In literature, the term
“bimrock: block-in-matrix rock”, as introduced by Medley [6] are
commonly referred to define these type of geomaterials. In this
paper the “bimrock” term is used to describe such formations as
commonly used in literature.
In many parts of the world, engineering structures may be
constructed on or in such challenging materials [1,2,5,10–14]. In
Iran, many large engineering structures inevitably rested on/in the
bimrocks with a wide range of mechanical properties. For exam-
ple, Karkheh reservoir dam (located in Khuzestan province) [14]
and Qomroud Long tunnel lot number 6 (located in Lorestan
province) [1] were designed and constructed on and in the weak
conglomeratic Bakhtiari Formation, respectively. Lavarak hydro-
power cavern (located northeast of Tehran) has been designed and
n mations are more time-consuming and costly due to the difficulty
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 98 21 64542961; fax: þ 98 21 6640 5846.
E-mail addresses: afifipour@aut.ac.ir,
mohamad_afifipour@yahoo.com (M. Afifipour).
constructed within the soft and massive Hezar Dareh conglomer-
ate [2]. Several instability problems and delays leading to exceed
the initial time and cost budget occurred in the mentioned
projects due to complexity in the determination of geomechanical
properties of the host materials.
The empirical relations are commonly preferred to select the
design parameters of problematic geomaterials such as particu-
larly jointed rock mass. The practical value of the empirical
equations or approaches increases when the input parameters of
these empirical obtained easily. Therefore the research on the
empirical criteria and classifications for identification of mechan-
ical behavior of jointed rock masses have been popular and
attractive research area in rock mechanics such as prediction of
deformation properties, strength failure criteria, RMR, Q and RMi,
etc. Empirical tools to be used for determination of design
parameters of problematic geomaterials is extensively studied
[15–19]. Similarly determination of mechanical properties of
bimrocks as a chaotic geomaterial are extraordinary difficult by
laboratory tests employed on undisturbed bimrock cores for
particularly unwelded bimrocks due to the difficulties encoun-
tered during preparation of representative core specimens.
To overcome these difficulties, limited number of studies was also
performed to introduce some empirical procedures to be used for
preliminary design stages for predicting of mechanical properties
of bimrocks.
Design and construction procedure associated with these for-
encountered for determination of geomechanical properties.
Therefore, a comprehensive characterization of bimrocks becomes

1365-1609/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2013.11.008
 M. Afifipour, P. Moarefvand / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48
a considerable interest to the engineering community owing to the
difficulties that have been encountered with structures located on
or in these materials.
When dealing with these challenging widespread materials, an
inevitable engineering practice is to determine their representative
mechanical properties for optimum design. As above mentioned,
there are few relevant studies in the literature concerning mechan-
ical properties of bimrocks. In the geomechanic literature, three
main approaches have been conducted to characterize mechanical
properties of bimrocks including experimental studies on natural
(if bimrocks could be cored properly) [4,5,8,9] and artificial bim-
rocks [3,7,20,21], in-situ large scale tests [10,22,23] and numerical
simulations [24–28]. The findings of the last two approaches were
summerised by Afifipour and Moarefvand [28] and Coli et al. [11]. In
this study we concentrated on experimental researches.
Sonmez et al. [8,9] carried out a series of uniaxial compression
test on agglomerate rock (a volcanic bimrock) and develop an
experimental correlation between the UCS and volumetric block
proportion of samples. Kahraman et al. [4,5] through triaxial and
uniaxial testing investigated the mechanical properties of a parti-
cular kind of fault breccia.
It is often extremely difficult to obtain undisturbed samples of
bimrock due to the contrast of drilling resistance of their consti-
tuents (rock blocks and host matrix). In such materials, during
sampling process some difficulties resulting from the disturbance
of rock particles contacts and breakage of bonds between rock
particles are present. The other principal problem associated with
laboratory testing of natural bimrocks is that, depending on their
geological origin, there can be a high spatial variation both in
degree of cementation and in the nature of rock particles [29]. Due
to these reasons, the use of artificially bimrock specimens made up
through the mixture of rock blocks and a cementing agent as host
matrix is considered as an alternative approach to overcome the
mentioned difficulties. This allows the simulation of natural
bimrocks in laboratory and better understanding of behavior of
Fig. 1. Some samples and outcrops of typical bimrocks.
41
bimrocks without excessive sample variability or any deviation
due to sample disturbance.
Lindquist [7] by laboratory triaxial tests and Sonmez et al. [20]
through uniaxial compression tests on artificial laboratory speci-
mens studied the effects of important factors on the mechanical
behaviors of bimrocks. They found an increase in the deformation
modulus and friction angle and a decrease trend in the UCS and
cohesion of artificial bimrocks with increase in the block propor-
tion of specimens. The volumetric rock block proportions in their
model bimrocks were between 30 and 75% of the specimen's
volume. Akram [3] prepared synthetic clast-supported conglom-
erate specimens from steel spheres as clasts and Portland cement
paste as cement matrix. The results showed that the peak uniaxial
strength, Young's modulus and mechanism of failure of model
specimens are largely controlled by the strength and stiffness of
the cement matrix.
All the previous studies from different approaches indicate that
the Volumetric Block Proportion (VBP), as the most important
parameter, has great impact on the physical and mechanical
properties of bimrocks. Although above mentioned researchers
have carried out studies on the bimrocks (natural or artificial
samples) having a range of VBP approximately between 30 and
75%, to the best of our knowledge there are no significant studies
for the bimrocks with higher VBP. In nature, some geological
formations exist with mixture of higher VBP and low matrix
content such as clast-supported conglomerates and breccias,
coarse-grained alluviums and colluviums, cemented talus and in
artificial form, mine waste dumps and cemented rockfill in under-
ground mining. Sonmez et al. [30] introduced an empirical
approach which has a capability to be used for prediction of
overall strength of birmrock for full scale of VBP from 0 to 100%
based on some conceptual rules, and calibrated by model test data
of Lindquist [7], Altınsoy [21], and Coskun [31]. However, the
prediction performance of the empirical approach proposed by
Sonmez et al. [30] are not evaluated by data obtained from either
42 M. Afifipour, P. Moarefvand / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48

artificial model or in-situ tests for bimrocks having higher VBP,

particularly greater than 70%.
In this study, artificial bimrocks models were prepared to
investigate the mechanical behavior of bimrocks having VBP
higher than 70%. However, rock block proportion (RBP) by weight
used instead of volumetric block proportion (VBP) by considering
small difference between VBP and RBP for higher block content.
Uniaxial compression tests, using a servo-control machine, were
conducted to obtain the value of UCS, Young's modulus, failure
strain and complete stress–strain curves.

2. Preparation of artificial bimrocks and testing procedures

Medley [6] defined bimrocks as a scale-independent material

based on some field measurements performed on Franciscan
mélange. However, in this study, the cylindrical specimens of
two sizes having a height to diameter ratio of 2 (150  300 mm
and 100  200 mm), were fabricated in order to observe possible
scale effect on the mechanical behavior of bimrocks. Artificial
bimrocks were prepared by mixing of rock particles and the Fig. 2. Size distribution of rock particles prepared for artificial bimrocks.
Portland cement and water mixture as cementing. For rock
particles, river aggregates were chosen. The particles have a
density of 2.53 g/cm3 with smooth surface and a good variability
in spherity and almost normally distributed sizes. The compressive
strength of the particles is around 41 MPa according to the
empirical correlation by point load test as suggested by Bieniaws-
ki's conversion factor as 23 [32].
While preparation of artificial bimrocks in the laboratory, the
maximum particle size (d) is determined according to the minimum
dimension of specimen (D). For materials with broad gradation D/d¼ 4
and for materials with narrow gradation, D/d¼6 are proposed by
Penman [33] and Marshal [34] respectively. One of the four modeling
techniques namely, scalping, parallel gradation, quadratic grain-size
distribution and replacement technique can be preferred for the rock
blocks gradation [35,36].
In this study, in order to have a uniform particle size distribu-
tion of all specimens, parallel gradation method was employed for
modeling the rock block size distribution curves. Consequently,
the rock particles sizes ranged approximately from 9 to 19 mm for
cylindrical speciemens having diameter to height ratio of
150  300 mm and 6 to 12 mm for 100  200 mm, respectively.
The rock blocks sizes and gradation curves used for each specimen Fig. 3. Typical fabricated cylindrical specimens for uniaxial compression testing of
were depicted in Fig. 2. two sizes with three different RBP.
The Portland cement and water mixture having the ratio of
water to cement 0.3 was used to prepare mortar, which can be
filled easily into the mold. The average value of uniaxial compres- The uniaxial compression tests were performed according to
sive strength of the prepared matrix was around 19 MPa. ASTM C 42 [38], which has several requirements regarding the
Three artificial bimrock compositions were prepared with shape of the test cylinders used for the compression test. One of
three mixture ratios by weight of rock blocks range around 70, the main requirements is that, the ends of the specimens are
80 and 90%. Four specimens of each proportion were prepared required to be within 0.51 of perpendicular to the axis, and must
for individual testing molds. The rock particles were mixed with be planar. Because of the high proportion of rock blocks in the
desired amount of cement and water in a box at ambient model bimrocks, none of them met this requirement. Therefore
temperature and carefully stirred manually until a homoge- capping the ends of the specimens is required. The cylinder
neous mixture was obtained. Then, the mixture was placed in specimens were capped at both ends with a gypsum capping
the molds whose internal wall was covered by a greasy film, compound following ASTM C617 [39].
which had a weak adhesion with the cementing paste. The The servo-hydraulic testing machine used to perform the
mixture compacted layer by layer in order to obtain a dense uniaxial compression tests, are shown in Fig. 4. All the compres-
packing. In details, according to ASTM C192 [37], a compaction sion tests were carried out under displacement control at a rate of
bar was provided for compacting the specimens. Each mold was 0.03 mm/s. In each test, the loading was continued until full failure
filled in three approximately equal layers and each layer with 25 of the specimen occurs.
strokes was compacted. The specimens were unmolded after In the following section, the main experimental results by
24 h. For curing the specimens, they were kept for 28 days in a focusing on the UCS, Young's modulus, failure strain as a function
wet environment at a temperature of around 25 1C and relative of RBP and complete stress–strain curve under uniaxial compres-
humidity of 95%. Two typical groups of cylindrical specimens are sion loading considering post-peak behavior are presented and
shown in Fig. 3. discussed.
 M. Afifipour, P. Moarefvand / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48
Fig. 4. Servo hydraulic 8502 Instron instrument for uniaxial compression testing of
bimrocks.
Fig. 5. Typical uniaxial stress–strain curves of artificial bimrocks with different RBP,
(a) 100  200 (mm) and, (b) 150  300 (mm) cylindrical specimens.
3. Discussion of results obtained from laboratory tests
3.1. Stress–strain behavior
Two series of typical stress–strain curves for cylindrical speci-
mens of two sizes, considering different values of RBP are
illustrated in Fig. 5. Fig. 5a and b correspond to the cylindrical
specimens of 100 mm and 150 mm diameter, respectively. In the
curves, thickness of lines referees to the RBP of the specimens. As
seen in Fig. 5, the stress–strain relation and the strength char-
acterization depend strongly on the RBP of the specimens.
In pre-peak region, for all the curves, the trend is approxi-
mately identical. According to Fig. 5a and b, at the beginning stage
of loading, the stress–strain curves have a non-linear concave
upward section that is due to the porous texture of specimens and
43
closure of voids and pre-existing fissures in the specimens. This
initial non-linearity is more obvious in the specimens with higher
RBP. After this part an approximately linear part, exist that
followed by a non-linear part up to the peak strength point.
According to Fig. 5, in the pre-peak region of some of the stress–
strain curves a special trend was observed that characterized by
two yield levels connected by a hardening phase. It can be
postulated that the first yield is related to the locally degradation
of cement bond and deformation of the matrix, while the increase
in strength up to the second yield is associated with rock block
interlocking or correlative action of rock blocks. Similar trends
were observed in some of the results of in-situ shear tests
conducted by Coli et al. [11] and also in two-dimensional numer-
ical simulations carried out by Xu et al. [25].
As can be seen in Fig. 5, after the peak strength, the curves of
cylindrical specimens of two sizes, share an approximately similar
trend. For the specimens with lower RBP a strain-softening
behavior is observed and for the specimens with higher RBP a
slight decrease in strength (i.e. gentler post-peak behavior) is the
dominant trend. In other words, in the post-peak region, increas-
ing the RBP in the specimens change the deformation behavior
from “an approximate steep drop in stress” to “low decrease of
strength with strain increment”. Therefore, an important charac-
teristic shown by stress–strain curves is that the post peak
response is highly dependent on the percentage of rock block.
In the post-peak region of some of the specimens, besides
strain softening trend as dominant trend, a transient hardening
phase was observed, especially in the specimens with lower RBP.
This special trend could be attributed to secondary interlocking of
blocks due to rock block displacement. This locally trend followed
by strain-softening behavior with strain increment.
The parameter RBP also plays an important role in failure modes of
artificial bimrocks specimens. Two series of failed specimens are
shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen, as a general term, instead of a sharp
splitting failure surface like in homogeneous brittle rocks, the speci-
mens experienced one or more tortuous failure surfaces. Three main
features could be considered for the failed specimens, including a
continuous tortuous failure surface, multiple localized shear failure
surfaces and detachment of rock blocks from the periphery of speci-
mens. The details of failure modes of specimens, as a function of the
RBP values, were highlighted by Afifipour and Moarefvand [27,28].
In the following parts, the effects of RBP values on UCS, Young's
modulus and the strain at peak strength of artificial bimrocks
specimens are discussed. A summary of the test results is given in
Table 1. As a general result according to Table 1, experimental tests
indicate that there is significant effect of the RBP values on
mechanical properties of bimrocks. As seen in Table 1, the speci-
men size is found to influence the strength and elastic response of
the bimrocks, similar to natural rocks. The strength and stiffness of
the bimrock decreased as specimen size increased.
3.2. Effect of RBP on specimens UCS
The mean and relative standard deviation (RSD) values of UCS for
the results of laboratory tests according to RBP were listed in
Table 1. The relations between UCS and y for two diameters of
specimens were investigated (Fig. 7). The UCS values of artificial
bimrocks decreases when RBP increases. The obtained relations of
exponential type for having artificial bimrocks diameters of 100 mm
and 150 mm diameter specimens are given by Eqs. (1) and (2),
respectively:
100 mm : UCS ¼ 1490:4expð  0:074RBPÞ; R2 ¼ 0:896 ð1Þ
150 mm : UCS ¼ 1533:8expð  0:076RBPÞÞ; R2 ¼ 0:877 ð2Þ
44 M. Afifipour, P. Moarefvand / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48

Fig. 6. Failure modes of two series of artificial bimrocks, (a) 100  200 (mm), (b) 150  300 (mm) cylindrical Specimens.

Table 1
Summary of strength and deformation parameters of artificial bimrocks with different RBP values. The mean and the Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) are shown.

Cylindrical Specimen Size (mm  mm) Uniaxial compressive strength (MPa) Young's modulus (GPa) Axial strain at failure (%)

Rock block proportion (RBP) (%) Rock block proportion (RBP) (%) Rock block proportion (RBP) (%)

70 80 90 70 80 90 70 80 90

100  200 8.01 (16%) 4.99 (27%) 2.06 (28%) 1.32 (15%) 0.91 (20%) 0.64 (28%) 1.01 (17%) 0.86 (15%) 0.67 (21%)
150  300 7.82 (17%) 3.66 (23%) 1.85 (38%) 1.16 (12%) 0.75 (20%) 0.42 (39%) 0.88 (22%) 0.72 (19%) 0.52 (39%)

Note: The values in the parentheses correspond to the relative standard deviation (RSD).

According to Fig. 7a and b, similar reduction trend for both
groups of specimens is observed. In Fig. 7c the whole data for both
sizes of specimens were combined. According to the figure, almost
similar trend and relation was observed that implied the scale-
independence of the value of UCS for bimrocks with high RBP.
Medley [6] also demonstrated the scale-independence of some
Franciscan mélanges.
3.3. Effect of RBP on Young's modulus
While the relations between the average Young's modulus and
RBP were given in Fig. 8a and b, the mean and RSD values of
Young's modulus were summarized in Table 1. The average
Young's modulus for each specimen was calculated on the elastic
linear portion of the stress–strain curves. Generally, a clear
 M. Afifipour, P. Moarefvand / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48
Fig. 7. UCS of bimrocks specimens as a function of RBP values for (a) 100 mm,
(b) 150 mm diameter specimens, and (c) whole data for two sizes.
decreasing trend of Young's modulus is observed with an increase
in the RBP values. The exponential type relations obtained for
artificial bimrocks having diameter of 100 and 150 mm are given
in Eqs. (3) and (4), respectively:
100 mm : E ¼ 21:69expð  0:040RBPÞ; R2 ¼ 0:704 ð3Þ
150 mm : E ¼ 61:69expð  0:056RBPÞ; R2 ¼ 0:730 ð4Þ
In Fig. 8c the data of two sizes were combined and the resulted
equation approximately was similar to Eqs. (3) and (4). This result
implied no significant scale effect on Young's modulus of bimrocks
with high RBP.
3.4. Effect of RBP on the strain at failure
The mean and RSD values of axial strain at failure for all the
specimens are listed in Table 1. The Strain at failure is simply defined
as the strain at which maximum stress was reached. The average axial
strain at failure for cylindrical specimens were observed between 0.67
and around 1.01% and 0.52 to around 0.88 for 100 mm and 150 mm
diameter specimens, respectively. The higher values of failure axial
strain corresponded to the specimens with lower rock block
45
Fig. 8. Correlation between Young's modulus and RBP values for (a) 100 mm,
(b) 150 mm diameter cylindrical specimens, and (c) whole data for two sizes.
proportions. According to Fig. 9, the failure strain of artificial bimrock
decreases with increasing the RBP values, according to linear correla-
tion for 100 mm and 150 mm diameter specimens by Eqs. (5) and (6),
respectively:
ε ¼  0:0176RBP þ2:1168; R2 ¼ 0:896 ð5Þ
ε ¼  0:0173RBP þ2:2216; R2 ¼ 0:877 ð6Þ
In Fig. 9c, the relation for whole data of two sizes were
evaluated which are similar to Eqs. (5) and (6). This result implied
no significant scale effect on the failure strain of bimrocks with
high RBP.
4. Discussion and conclusion
The empirical approaches have been popular research topic in
rock mechanics literature for some geomaterials particularly
heavily jointed rock mass due to requirements of extraordinarily
efforts for determination of their mechanical parameters. Similarly
determination of mechanical design parameters of bimrocks by
laboratory and/or in-situ test are almost impossible due to the
46 M. Afifipour, P. Moarefvand / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48
Fig. 9. Correlation between axial strain at failure and RBP values for (a) 100  200
(mm), (b) 150  200 (mm) cylindrical specimens, and (c) whole data for two sizes.
mechanical contrast between rock blocks and matrixs. Some
studies performed to identify both characterization of bimrocks
and its mechanical behavior as mentioned in introduction.
Although some of these studies were used artificial bimrock for
laboratory test, however, none of them include artificial bimrocks
cores having volumetric block content (VBP) higher than 75%.
In this study, the mechanical behaviour of bimrock having VBP
higher than 70% were investigated. Although volumetric propor-
tion are used for rock block content, in this study results were
evaluated by weight as rock block proportion (RBP) due to simpler
procedure in fabrication of bimrocks having higher rock block
contents and porous texture. In fact, the difference between VBP
and RBP values are very small and insignificant for bimrocks with
higher block content, however, it is also possible to convert these
factors from one to another by considering unit weight of rock
blocks and matrix. Volumetric block proportion (VBP) should be
preferred for particularly site application due to the fact that it can
be evaluated by scan-line, by image analyses of scaled photo, by
rock cores obtained from drill holes, etc [6,40,41].
In accordance with literature, the results show that RBP plays
an important role in mechanical behaviors of bimrocks including
UCS, Young's modulus, strain at failure, and stress–strain behavior
especially post peak region. A general decreasing trend in UCS,
Young modulus and failure strain were observed with increasing
of RBP in range of approximately 70–90% RBP (Eqs. (1)–(6)).
Fig. 10. Comparison the model test data conducted by [4,21] (after [30]) and
this study.
Fig. 11. Schematic comparison between the correlation described by [4] for
Ahauser breccias and by [8] for Ankara Agglomerate (after [4]).
Lindquist [7] and Altinsoy [21] identified the relation between
UCS and RBP for artificial bimrocks specimens made up of rock
block with RBP varying between 25 and 75%. Lindquist [7]
prepared model bimrocks made up of stronger blocks (a sand-
cement mixture) in a weaker and softer matrix (a clay-cement
mixture). Altinsoy [21] fabricated artificial bimrocks by mixing of
rock pieces (tuff and andesite) and matrix (a mixture of cement,
bentonite and water) in different ratios by weight. Their results
showed that the UCS of bimrocks proportionally decreased with
increasing RBP up to around 75%. The results of the present study
are in agreement with the results of above researches. Sonmez
et al. [30] based on the above laboratory studies developed an
empirical approach to predict the UCS of bimrocks from the
volumetric block proportion (VBP) by introducing a constant, (A),
that refers to the boundary properties between rock blocks and
matrix (Fig. 10). In Fig. 10, the UCS values of bimrocks are normal-
ized by dividing them by matrix UCS. The value of constant (A)
increases for the higher adhesion on the block-matrix interfaces
[30]. As indicated in Fig. 10, for the bimrocks with RBP (more than
70%) a steeper decreasing trend is predicted. The data of the
present study (Fig. 5a) were plotted on the graphs in Fig. 10. As can
be seen, the data is in good agreement with the proposed trend by
 M. Afifipour, P. Moarefvand / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 65 (2014) 40–48
Sonmez et al. [30]. However, according to the category proposed
by Sonmez et al. [30] concerning the selection of constant (A), the
distribution of data of this study in Fig. 10, implies weak adhesion
at the interfaces between the matrix and interior blocks.
In literature, the above-mentioned bimrocks, are categorized as
unwelded bimrocks (or cemented bimrocks) [30,42] due to low
strength of the block-matrix contacts. In addition to the unwelded
bimrocks, another category is defined as welded bimrocks (or
crystallized bimrocks) which were formed under high pressure
and temperature conditions. In welded bimrocks, the strength of
the contact boundaries is approximately equal to the matrix
properties [30,42].
From the welded category of bimrocks, Kahraman and Alber [4]
studied the UCS of a fault breccias at Ahauser reservoir, Germany,
consisting of weak blocks (slate) and strong matrix (recrystalized
limestone). According to their results, the UCS of breccias samples
decreased as the RBP increased, as shown in Fig. 11. However,
Sonmez et al. [8] found a different trend for a volcanic bimrocks,
Ankara agglomerate, including a mixture of stronger andesite blocks
and weaker tuff matrix. As shown in Fig. 11, their results showed an
increasing trend in samples UCS with increasing of the RBP. The
differences between the two studies are due to the matrix type of
tested samples. The matrix of Ankara Agglomerate is weaker than the
rock blocks, whereas the matrix of fault breccias studied by Kahra-
man et al. [4] is stronger than the weak blocks of slate.
As a general result, in welded bimrocks, rock block content (or
matrix content) and strength contrast of block to matrix are most
effective parameters. In unwelded bimrocks, as well as two
mentioned parameters, the strength of block-matrix interface also
has a great impact on mechanical behavior of samples.
It should be noted that, welded bimrock in most of times could
be cored properly due to high adhesion between rock blocks and
matrix. Nevertheless, in unwelded bimrocks, such as low cemen-
ted alluvium, clast-supported conglomerate, and the model bim-
rocks studied in this study, fabrication of artificial model
specimens could be considered as an economic, practical and
reliable tool to preliminary characterization of their mechanical
behaviors.
Dominant failure modes of the specimens observed under
uniaxial compression include one or more tortuous failure surface,
multiple localized shear failure surfaces and detachment of rock
blocks from the periphery of specimens. In pre-peak part of the
stress–strain curves of the specimens, a non-linear concave
upward section was observed at the beginning stage of loading
that could be attributed to the porous texture of specimens and
closure of voids. In pre-peak section of some of the curves, two
yield levels connected by a hardening phase were observed
because of local degradation of the bonds between blocks and
again interlocking of blocks. In post-peak region of the curves,
strain softening was dominant behavior. Increasing the RBP in the
specimens made the post-peak behavior gentler (i.e. flatter slope
in post peak part of stress–strain part).
The findings of this study can give a useful understanding of
the mechanical properties of bimrocks with high RBP values or low
cement content such as clast-supported conglomerate, mine waste
dump, cemented rock fill and old failed slope materials. Based on
the case histories, laboratory studies and other literature findings
on bimrocks properties, a particular engineering rock mass classi-
fication considering effective parameters on their mechanical
properties should be developed to facilitate the proper character-
ization of bimrocks.
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