Lucinda Copley - Research Student

Telephone: 25731
Room: E104

email : cip06lvc@sheffield.ac.uk

Research Group

Research Project

Engineering Properties of Weathered Mercia Mudstone

The Mercia Mudstone Group (MMG) is a sequence of interbedded mudstones, siltstones and sandstones of Triassic age that occurs widely in the UK.

Rocks within the MMG, particularly mudstones, are prone to rapid weathering, causing changes in their physical properties, with problematic implications on the behaviour of the rock in certain engineering situations.

Complex weathering profiles occur such that the degree of weathering does not always decrease linearly as a function of depth. The causes of this effect and also the reasons for large apparent variations in engineering properties will be investigated in MMG mudstones in the Nottingham, Derby and Leicester areas.

Laboratory testing of samples that have been exposed to controlled simulated weathering processes including wetting and drying, freezing and thawing and different levels of humidity will be carried out in order to ascertain the controls on degradation in different environmental conditions.

The results of testing should enable the understanding of how the engineering properties of Mercia Mudstone may change due to different types of weathering and if these changes can be predicted based on the geology of the rock.