Time-dependent Characteristics of Tuff from Creep Test under Different Loading Regimes

Tuff, which is sedimentary rock consisting of volcanic ashes, has been used as building stone for centuries worldwide and some collapses of abandoned underground quarries occurred in recent years. The time-dependent response and monitoring of these abandoned underground quarries are of great importance. The authors have been carrying out some experimental studies on the creep behavior of tuffs from Japan and Turkey utilizing creep tests subjected to different loading regimes such as uniaxial or triaxial compression, Brazilian tensile, bending as conventional creep tests and impression creep tests as index test. The authors report some experimental results on time-dependent characteristics of tuffs during uniaxial and triaxial compression, Brazilian and impression creep experiments in this study. The experimental results are compared with each other for the suitability for creep characteristics and their implications are briefly discussed.