Effect of the specimen length on ultrasonic P-wave velocity in some volcanic rocks and limestones

•We investigated the influence of specimen length on ultrasonic P-wave velocity in some volcanic rocks and limestones.•The 200 NX-sized core specimens having lengths between 50 and 150 mm were tested under dry and saturated conditions.•In order to determine the threshold specimen length, a method was developed using regression analyses.•The threshold specimen length is 79 mm for volcanic rocks and 109 mm for limestones.

Ultrasonic P-wave velocity (UPV) is commonly used in different fields such as civil, mining, geotechnical, and rock engineering. One of the significant parameters which affect the UPV of rock materials is likely to be the length of test cores although it is not mentioned in the literature. In this study, in order to explore the influence of the specimen length on the UPV, rock samples were collected from eight different locations in Turkey. The NX-sized core specimens having different length of 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 mm were prepared. Before the analyses, rocks were divided into two groups in terms of their geological origins such as volcanic and chemical sedimentary (limestone) rocks. The UPV tests were carried out under dry and saturated conditions for each 200 core specimens. By evaluating the test results, it was shown that the length of the specimens significantly affects the UPV values. Based on the regression analyses, a method was developed to determine the threshold specimen length of studied rocks. Fluctuations in UPVdry and UPVsat values were generally observed for cores smaller than the threshold specimen length. In this study, the threshold specimen length was determined as 79 mm for volcanic rocks and 109 mm for limestones.