Statistical Method for Assessing the Uniaxial Compressive Strength of Carbonate Rock by Schmidt Hammer Tests Performed on Core Samples

A study was conducted to propose a new empirical relationship between the uniaxial compressive strength of rock and the Schmidt hammer rebound index (R) measurements, based on the statistical percentile method applied to sedimentary carbonate rocks whose uniaxial resistance was within the range of feasibility of the Schmidt hammer test. The R measurements were performed using two types of Schmidt's hammer, such as the L and N types. The indirect estimation of the uniaxial compressive strength of rock from measurements was a common practice performed by means of several empirical relationships. A four-step statistical procedure was proposed to derive the regression equation and to verify the presence of outliers in the two datasets by means of the EDA technique. The statistical procedure also aimed to generate a new sample dataset of percentile values from each sample's cumulative function.