Saturation Influence on Reduction of Compressive Strength for Carbonate Dimension Stone in Croatia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors

Your paper needs improvement.The introduction section should be enhanced with proper references, and also you could add petrographical information from your samples. Also you should consider determinig the pore system using Mercury Intrussion Porosimetry, for example.

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Please make sure that the language is reviewed by a native speaker.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thank you very much for your time and comments which helped us to improve the manuscript. Please take a look at the attachment, where you will find responses to your comments.
Best regards,
Zlatko Briševac

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors investigated the saturation influence on reduction of comprehensive strength for carbonate dimension stones. The manuscript well organized and written, but needs major revision before publication in Minerals. After carefully reading the manuscript, I have some comments to help you improve your paper:

1. The abstract section needs revision based on quantitative results.

2. The introduction section needs revision. More relative, recent literature (about strength of dimension stones) should be included in this section such as:

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-022-02095-9

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09658-8

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-016-0467-3

3. The necessity and innovation of the article should be presented to the introduction.

4. Please check the positive sign and negative sign of considered parameters on UCS in achieved equations of 17 and 18 (they are not consistent with logic). In this situation, occurrence of multicollinearity problem is common (see https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02381-5).

 

5. It is suggested to add the performance of developed equations in section 3.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thank you very much for your time and comments which helped us to improve the manuscript. Please take a look at the attachment, where you will find responses to your comments.
Best regards,
Zlatko Briševac

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The reviewer thanks the authors and editors for the opportunity to review the manuscript. The manuscript discusses the variability of UCS for dry and saturation conditions of limestone from the Croatian area. The manuscript is interesting; however, it contains analyses that have already been discussed at a very extensive scale by other researchers. Nevertheless, the results presented seem interesting and should be further pursued by the authors.

Comments:
1) The authors should consider extending the laboratory studies and try to define equations for Croatian limestones with a wider range of properties.
2) In the first paragraph of the introduction, the authors suggest that the main use of dimension stone is decorative cladding slabs. It should be noted that the use of dimension stone is much broader, including use for paving in the form of floor slabs or cubes.
3) The authors in the introduction should emphasise more the scientific content of the work. The authors should explain how their research differs from already published research by other scientists.
4) The conclusion needs to be rewritten. The authors should emphasise more the scientific value of their research and indicate what is new to science.

The article may have a average scientific interest due to the large number of articles already published in this area. However, the manuscript is very interesting and I have no major objections. I recommend it for publication with minor changes.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thank you very much for your time and comments which helped us to improve the manuscript. Please take a look at the attachment, where you will find responses to your comments.
Best regards,
Zlatko Briševac

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors modified the manuscript based on my suggested comments, so it can be published in Minerals journal.