Predicting the abrasion resistance value before and after deterioration by freeze–thaw of limestones based on the initial material properties: a case study from Manisa area western Türkiye

Abrasion resistance is the most important parameter that determines the usage areas and service life of natural stones. Especially, in cold climates where freezing–thawing (F–T) is effective, it is crucial to determine the abrasion resistance of stones after F–T before using them in engineering projects. It is well known that abrasion resistance and freeze–thaw tests are time-consuming and laborious experiments. This study seeks to develop a new empirical equation for predicting the abrasion resistance before and after F–T test of limestones using the initial material properties without performing abrasion resistance and F–T tests. Böhme abrasion (BA) test which is the most widely used method was performed to determine the abrasion resistance of the limestones. For this purpose, the relationships between BA values before and after F–T and several most common material properties (density, ρ; unit weight, γ; water absorption, Wa; effective porosity, n; P-wave velocity, Vp; point load strength index, Is50; uniaxial compressive strength, UCS; indirect (Brazilian) tensile strength, BTS; Schmidt hardness, SH; Böhme abrasion, BA) of limestones showing seven different types outcropped in Manisa, Turkey were investigated by simple and multiple regression analyses. Consequently, two equations have been developed to predict the abrasion resistance before and after F–T test of the limestones based on the routinely measured material properties. Some error metrics, such as root-mean-square error (RMSE), variance account for (VAF), and standard error of estimate (SEE), were used to check the estimation accuracy of the developed equation. This study has shown that the developed equations are reliable and have a good prediction performance only considering the routinely measured properties of the limestones without requiring BA and F–T tests.