Feasibility Analysis of Granitic Rocks for Use in the Dimension Stone Industry

Abstract

This study presents two objective evaluation tools for assessing the feasibility of granitic rocks in dimension stone applications. The developed methods integrate fundamental physical and mechanical properties, including dry density (rho d), effective porosity (ne), P-wave velocity (Vp), uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), and Böhme abrasion value (BAV). Feasibility analyses based on the conditional formatting (CF) and ranking method RM reveal that the adopted input parameters are essential for determining the suitability of granitic rocks as dimension stones. The strong relationship between the CF and RM results highlights their consistency and broad applicability. Both methods exhibit good agreement with the recommendations of the American standard for granitic rocks. Consequently, the suggested methods provide practical guidance for selecting suitable rock exposures in field studies, also offering a time- and energy-efficient decision-making framework for the dimension stone industry. To comprehensively evaluate the strengths and limitations of the proposed approaches, it is recommended that these tools be applied to a wider range of dimension stone types and geological settings.