Astromat

Unconfined uniaxial compressive strength measurement performed at UCa on prepared cuboid sample OREX-800123-107. The cuboid was compressed under known loads, increasing to failure. Change in length of the cuboid under load was measured by an extensometer, allowing calculation of the sample’s Young’s modulus. The maximum load reached was 140.21 N; the maximum stress reached, corresponding to the ultimate compressive strength, was 38.5 MPa. The Young’s modulus was calculated to be 4.07 GPa from the average slope of the linear portion of the stress vs strain plot. Due to sample size limitations, the cuboid length to width ratio was 1.39:1, less than the 2:1 ratio specified by ASTM protocols. The cuboid had a fracture continuation (as revealed by the XCT scan performed at JSC) and showed three small load drops before the ultimate strength was reached which probably reflect initial fracturing. The cuboid deformation to failure demonstrated mostly brittle behaviour, and failure resulted in the cuboid fracturing to angular fragments and dust. The bundled data contain the unconfined uniaxial compressive strength result, reference images of the sample and experimental setup, data plots, and methods description. During OREX-800123-107 cuboid sample preparation, sample splits OREX-800123-115, OREX-800123-116, OREX-800123-117, OREX-800123-118, OREX-800123-119, and OREX-800123-120 were created.