Evaluation of and Comparison Between Petrographic and Technical
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UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG Department of Earth Sciences Geovetarcentrum/Earth Science Centre Evaluation of and comparison between petrographic and technical properties of rock samples from the supposed railway corridor between Gothenburg and Jönköping, SW Sweden Camilla Lindström ISSN 1400-3821 B963 Master of Science (120 credits) thesis Göteborg 2017 Mailing address Address Telephone Telefax Geovetarcentrum Geovetarcentrum Geovetarcentrum 031-786 19 56 031-786 19 86 Göteborg University S 405 30 Göteborg Guldhedsgatan 5A S-405 30 Göteborg SWEDEN Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Background .................................................................................................................. 6 1.2 Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 7 2. Geological Setting .............................................................................................................. 7 2.1 The Western Segment .................................................................................................. 8 2.2 The Mylonite zone ....................................................................................................... 8 2.3 The Eastern Segment.................................................................................................... 8 2.4 The Protogine zone ...................................................................................................... 8 2.5 The Transscandinavian Igneous Belt ........................................................................... 8 3. Crushed Rock Material .................................................................................................... 9 3.1 Crushed Rock Material in Road and Railway Ballast .................................................. 9 3.2 Crushed Rock Material in Concrete ............................................................................. 9 4. Technical properties of rocks ......................................................................................... 10 4.1 Grain Size and Grain Size Distribution ...................................................................... 11 4.2 Mineralogy ................................................................................................................. 11 4.3 Grain Boundaries ....................................................................................................... 12 4.4 Perimeter .................................................................................................................... 12 4.5 Foliation ..................................................................................................................... 12 4.6 Micro Cracks .............................................................................................................. 12 4.7 Secondary Alterations ................................................................................................ 13 4.8 Porosity ...................................................................................................................... 13 5. Earlier Work ................................................................................................................... 13 6. Materials and Methods ................................................................................................... 13 6.1 Technical Analysis ..................................................................................................... 14 6.1.1 Los Angeles Test ................................................................................................ 14 6.1.2 Studded Tyre Test .............................................................................................. 15 6.1.3 MicroDeval Test ................................................................................................. 15 6.2 Micro Analysis ........................................................................................................... 15 6.2.1 Mineralogy ......................................................................................................... 15 6.2.2 Grading of Grain Boundaries ............................................................................. 15 6.2.3 Secondary Alterations ........................................................................................ 15 6.3 Image Analysis ........................................................................................................... 16 6.3.1 Mineral Grain Size and Grain Size Distribution ................................................ 16 6.3.2 Perimeter Analysis ............................................................................................. 18 7. Results .............................................................................................................................. 18 2 7.1 Technical Analysis ..................................................................................................... 18 7.2 Mineralogy ................................................................................................................. 24 7.3 Micro Analysis ........................................................................................................... 26 7.3.1 Grading of Grain Boundaries ............................................................................. 26 7.3.2 Altered Plagioclase ............................................................................................. 28 7.4 Image Analysis ........................................................................................................... 29 7.4.1 Grain Size and Grain Size Distribution .............................................................. 31 7.4.2 Perimeter ............................................................................................................ 32 7.4.3 Crystal Alignment .............................................................................................. 33 8. Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 33 8.1 Technical Analysis ..................................................................................................... 33 8.2 Mineralogy ................................................................................................................. 33 8.3 Micro Analysis ........................................................................................................... 34 8.3.1 Grading of Grain Boundaries ............................................................................. 34 8.3.2 Evaluation of Method ......................................................................................... 34 8.3.3 Altered Plagioclase ............................................................................................. 35 8.4 Image Analysis ........................................................................................................... 35 8.4.1 Grain Size and Grain Size Analysis ................................................................... 35 8.4.2 Perimeter ............................................................................................................ 35 8.4.3 Crystal Alignment .............................................................................................. 35 8.4.4 Evaluation of Method ......................................................................................... 36 9. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 37 10. Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... 38 11. References ........................................................................................................................ 39 12. Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 42 12.1 Appendix A: General and technical data ................................................................... 42 12.2 Appendix B: Grade of Intergrowth and Grade of Altered Plagioclase ...................... 48 12.3 Appendix C: Mineralogy............................................................................................ 51 12.4 Appendix D: Area and Perimeter ............................................................................... 54 12.5 Appendix E: Texture and Grain Size ......................................................................... 55 3 Abstract Natural gravel is considered a very important, and finite, resource given its significant role in various groundwater-related issues. Natural gravel has been used as ballast and aggregates for many decades, given its favourable properties such as well-rounded and well-sorted grains. As an alternative to natural gravel, it is possible to use larger quantities of crushed bedrock material instead. This does however place great demands on the bedrock's geological and technical characteristics. The strength and resistance of the bedrock is evaluated with the Los Angeles (resistance to fragmentation; LA) and Studded Tyre (resistance to abrasion; AN) tests, which will indicate whether the material is suitable enough to be used as construction material. The strength of a rock material is in many ways a product of its petrographic characteristics, such