Effects of moisture and clay minerals on the strength of soil along Kota Belud - Ranau Road in Tamparuli, Sabah
Landslide had long been regarded as one of the major geohazard in Sabah. Intense tropical climate of the region act as a catalyst that speed up the weathering process resulting in the decreasing resistance in rock mass and the formation of clay. Clay mineral in soil is a product of weathering proce...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/11575/1/mt0000000633.pdf |
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| Summary: | Landslide had long been regarded as one of the major geohazard in Sabah. Intense tropical climate of the region act as a catalyst that speed up the weathering process
resulting in the decreasing resistance in rock mass and the formation of clay. Clay mineral in soil is a product of weathering process that contributes to the occurrence
of landslides because of their properties. Due to constant heavy downpour that acts as the main triggering factor, it causes a decrease in strength of soil. The objective
of the study is to determine the effects of moisture and clay minerals on the strength of soil. The research area is located along Kota Belud - Ranau Road in Tamparuli, Sabah. The study area is underlain prominently by Crocker Formation
aged from Late Eocene to Early Miocene. Soil of the area is a weathering product from the exposed sedimentary rock formation known as Crocker, the alternating different lithology of this formation from one sampling station to another reflects the diversity in terms of engineering properties. Moisture data obtained from the Proctor Compaction Test was applied using the manipulation of Unconfined Compression Test by treating the samples with S% of increment and decrement of moisture from the optimum moisture content. The analysis yielded the strength of
soil ranges from 49.S kPa to 114.5 kPa for optimum moisture, 12.5 kPa to 50 kPa for 5% increment and 77 kPa to 222 kPa for 5% decrement. The term Compressive Strength Difference is introduce in this research, it is defined as the percentage of compressive strength difference of the manipulated samples to its compressive strength at optimum moisture. Sample with clayey material scored 75%, the
highest percentage of compressive strength difference loss when treated with 5% increase of moisture. Whilst, sample with sandy material scored 145%, the highest percentage of compressive strength difference gain when treated with 5% decrease of moisture. Clay mineral analysis was executed by X-Ray Diffraction Analysis (XRD) and yielded clay minerals such as halloysite, montmorillonite, illite-montmorillonite
and illite, which are Significant in all the samples. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observation shows Illite, illite-montmorillonite and montmorillonite is often observed and characterized by their unique features. It is concluded that engineering properties of soil in the study area provide variety of results and this mainly controlled by the type of soil. This research shows that effect of moisture
and clay mineral to the properties of the sample has a direct impact on the compressive strength of soil |
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