Effects of Thickness of a Mineral Layer of Granite and Marble on the Mechanical Properties of a Bilayer Material: Case of Granites

The present work is dedicated to the study of the mechanical properties of a bilayer material. This material consists of a mortar substrate and a mineral layer of granite or marble. The mixture of these two constituents of different characteristics gives a material whose properties will vary depending on the density of each constituent. The standardized testing on sand and the three point bending and compression tests are among other methods used for the evaluation of the mechanical characteristics of the specimens of 4 cm × 4 cm × 16 cm dimensions. The results of these tests show that samples of the mineral layer in granite with a thickness of 1.7 and that of 1.4 cm in marble get good bending resistance in three point respectively equal to 10.63 and 10.3 MPa. As for the compression tests, it appears that the compressive resistance increases with the thickness of the mineral layer but evolves in reverse with the rate of water absorption of these materials. The best resistance in compression obtained with the samples having the thickness of 2 cm of the granite or marble mineral layers are respectively 24.47 and 24.07 MPa. In addition, for this same thickness, the Bilayers offer a better rate of water absorption.