Evaporitic Rocks Disintegration under Various pH Levels as Slaking Fluid

Engineering applications pose major challenge in designing structures that are safe, durable, and sustainable in various environmental situations. The slake durability index (SDI) test is commonly used to evaluate weak rock disintegration, such as evaporates, which are widely found in the Abu Dhabi area near the foundation levels, encountering construction challenges due to their disintegration. This study intends to provide insight into the disintegration characteristics of evaporitic rocks in the Abu Dhabi region under acidic and alkaline environmental conditions. Distilled water and groundwater which was collected from the study area is used as slaking fluids. As a result, rock blocks from the Abu Dhabi region, which is divided into four zones, were collected, and six sets of representative SDI test samples for each zone were prepared and tested using slaking fluids of pH values 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, as well as distilled water and groundwater. In addition, the macroscopic and microscopic (thin section, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy) descriptions of representative samples from each zone were carried out. According to the findings, the overall average slakes durability weight loss of evaporates lies in the range of 60–72 wt% and could be classified as medium durably for Zones 1 and 4 under the basic environment, and for Zones 2 and 3 under the acidic environment. Thus, this study delivers the detailed explanation about the slaking characteristics of evaporitic rocks under various pH level conditions for engineers and decision makers to overcome degradability problems.