Indiana Limestone, a readily available carbonate rock, was selected for laboratory geomechanical testing as an analogue to Alberta’s bitumen-saturated, Devonian aged Grosmont formation. To study the effects of a highly viscous material occupying the pore space, both completely dry samples and samples saturated with paraffin wax were tested. Compressive strength tests including Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and Triaxial strength tests, employing confining pressures of up to 25 MPa, were completed on 39 Indiana Limestone samples. Of the 39 tests performed, 20 were carried out on dry specimens and 19 on wax-saturated specimens. Brazilian tensile testing was also completed on 10 dry samples and 10 wax saturated samples. The experimental results are presented, and show that the peak strength of the samples tested under compressive conditions does not change significantly with the addition of paraffin wax. However, when comparing dry and wax-saturated specimens, there appears to be variation in other properties, such as Young’s modulus and fracture mode. The Brazilian tensile strength data also show some variation and suggest the wax-saturated samples have an average tensile strength greater than the dry tested samples.
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