Department of Earth Sciences, NRC, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
* Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Cairo University, Egypt
ABSTRACT
Thirty specimens of biomicrite, fossiliferous micrite, micrite, pelmicrite and biosparite representing the Lower Eocene limestones in the environs of Assiut are tested to evaluate their physical and mechanical properties. The stress-strain curves are given and discussed. The physical properties revealed that they are slightly porous to semi porous, while the mechanical properties indicated that they are weak to strong, very brittle to brittle, and the mode of failure is in the form of tension crack, shear fracture and wedge type pattern. The relations between the ultimate strength and P-wave velocity via effective porosity dry bulk density , carbonate content and micrite content are discussed .