Development and Characterization of Portland Cement-based SyntheticRock Materials

Rocks are a widely varied class of materials with strengths, elastic constants and other properties
varying by one or two orders of magnitude, ranging from the weakest to the strongest rock types. As
well, within any given rock mass, properties can be heterogeneous and isotropic, and can vary with
both position and orientation within the same formation. The use of natural rock materials for
experimental geomechanics studies in oil and gas at Memorial University has several difficulties:
Experimental studies require a high degree of reproducibility, and many natural rocks have high
variability even within a small sample volume; and oil and gas reservoirs are found in sedimentary
rocks, and rocks of this type are not local to the onshore portion of Eastern Newfoundland. Concrete
is a material composed of a Portland cement-based matrix and rock aggregate, and has similar
material properties and failure behaviour as low-permeability, sedimentary rocks. The objective of this
internship is…TOBECONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Stephen Butt

Student:

Partner:

Pennecon Concrete;Memorial University of Newfoundland

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate