The physical and mechanical specifications of rocks are the most important parameters in the design of the excavations, and the classification of rocks for the engineering purposes. Nowadays the non destructive tests have found a special status in evaluation of the physical and mechanical parameters of rocks. It seems that the simplicity, the non destructiveness, the speed in testing process, and comparatively lower cost of testing has made these types of testing to propagate rapidly. The ultrasonic wave velocity and Schmidt hammer tests are amongst these non-destructive tests.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the authenticity of the values of the physico-mechanical parameters of the marlstones of Iran using Schmidt hammer and sonic wave velocity.
The investigations have shown that there exist a good agreement in between the results of the mentioned non-destructive tests performed and some of the physics-mechanical properties of the marlstones of Iran. It is suggested that some of these properties can be evaluated indirectly by the non-destructive tests and the empirical equations suggested.