Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
GEOMECHANICS AND ENGINEERING, cilt.10, sa.6, ss.775-791, 2016 (SCI-Expanded)
The indirect tensile strengths (ITSs) of different cemented paste backfill mixes with different curing times were determined by considering crack initiation and fracture toughness concepts under different loading conditions of steel loading arcs with various contact angles, flat platens and the standard Brazilian test jaw. Because contact area of the ITS test discs developes rapidly and varies in accordance with the deformability, ITSs of curing materials were not found convenient to determine under the loading apparatus with indefinite contact angle. ITS values increasing with an increase in contact angle can be measured to be excessively high because of the high contact angles resulted from the deformable characteristics of the soft paste backfill materials. As a result of the change of deformation characteristics with the change of curing time, discs have different contact conditions causing an important disadvantage to reflect the strength change due to the curing reactions. In addition to the experimental study, finite element analyses were performed on several types of disc models under various loading conditions. As a result, a comparison between all loading conditions was made to determine the best ITSs of the cemented paste backfill materials. Both experimental and numerical analyses concluded that loading arcs with definite contact angles gives better results than those obtained with the other loading apparatus without a definite contact angle. Loading arcs with the contact angle of 15 degrees was found the most convenient loading apparatus for the typical cemented paste backfill materials, although it should be used carefully considering the failure cracks for a valid test.