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The effects of particle breakage and shape on the strength parameters
of sandy soil
To cite this article: D Youventharan et al 2021 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 682 012021
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4th National Conference on Wind & Earthquake Engineering
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
1
The effects of particle breakage and shape on the strength
parameters of sandy soil
D Youventharan
1
, O Rokiah2 and S Mohd Arif2
1Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Malaysia
2Faculty of Civil Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26300
Gambang, Kuantan, Malaysia
E-mail: youventharan@ump.edu.my
Abstract. Many laboratory and full-scale studies found that pile foundation is a reliable
structure that has a long-term durability. This aspect makes it favourable when construction is
in an area like the coastal where granular materials are normally in great scale. Generally,
method used for the installation of pilling such as the drop hammer method will involve high
energy to drive a single pile into the ground. Hence, the soil particles may undergo serious
physical changes that will affect the engineering properties of soil used in the design work. The
main aim of this research is to know the impact of pile installation work on sand particles. To
understand the impact of sand particle breakage to the soil strength, an actual soil breaking
mechanism simulated in the laboratory by using an automated soil compactor where the sand
samples were crushed using 500 and 1000 times of blows respectively. The behaviour of sand
were then analysed using a series of test which are; sieve analysis, specific gravity, relative
density and the shear box test in order to measure the engineering properties of the sand.
Mackintosh probe test was conducted in-situ to identify the undrained shear strength of sand
and to correlate the cohesion of the sand with laboratory testing. This research confirmed that
particle breakage has a significant influence with sand shape and therefore its strength changes
with crushing impact.
1. Introduction
Soil particle breakage is one of the mechanisms that govern the behaviour of the granular soil by
altering its grain size distribution. Granular soil associated with activities such as pile driving will
experience loading which may cause particle breakage. The objective of this research is to study the
impact of crushing of sand soils from different locations along the coastal area of East Coast of
Peninsular Malaysia. Crushable sand which caused by high stress exert on the sand particles are
considered brittle and are frequently encountered in areas prone to liquefaction like beaches due to
strong tidal waves [1]. Apart from that, crushable sand soils too have its contribution from the human
activities such as pile installation, construction of high earth or rock fill dams, impact of projectiles,
laying foundations of the offshore gravity structures and so on [2-3]. The sand crushability
characteristics will change from the original engineering properties, which a structure’s initial design
was based on. This brings the possibility of soil failure to occur due to significant change of the soil
properties after crushing. Normally, pile foundations are used for large structures and in a situation
1
To whom any correspondence should be addressed
4th National Conference on Wind & Earthquake Engineering
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
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doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
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where the shallow soil depth is insufficient to withstand excessive settlement, resist uplift, etc. Drop
hammer method used for the installation of the piles will create vibration on the ground due to the high
dynamic loading. As a results of this, particle breakage occurs when granular materials undergo
excessive compression energy [4]. Some researchers claim that, piles that are being driven into sands
and in debris flows will impose greater damage due to rather high energy level [5-7]. The breakage of
particles will result in the increase of percentage of fine particles and also significantly change in the
material grading [8][9]. Some studies also shows that aggregates with larger size appear to break more
than the smaller-sized ones [10]. Therefore, the original engineering properties with which a structure
was initially designed will change drastically during its engineering design lifespan [11]. In addition, a
large number of experimental evidences suggested that particle breakage might significantly influence
the soil behaviour [12]. Hence, to understand the soil behaviour and the changes that take place after
crushing, indicators like the breakage factor and the breakage index are used in this research.
1.1. Breakage factor
The amounts of the particles breakage were evaluated from the grain size distribution curves using the
method that was developed by empirical formula [13]. In this method, crushing impact was evaluated
by using the particle breakage factor denoted as B10. This parameter is based on the effective size,
where B10 is the particle breakage factor, D10i is the effective grain size of the initial gradation and D10f
is the effective grain size of the final gradation.
(Eq 1)
1.2. Breakage index
There are some empirical methods by which are used to quantify particle breakage considering the
changes in specific particle size. For example relative breakage computed where the entire grain size
distribution before and after loading is measured, in comparison to what recommended by other
researchers. Relative breakage and surface area increments as shown in figure 1. Apart from that, one
simple method known as the breakage index, is used in the study where D15i is the effective grain size
of initial gradation and D15f is the effective grain size of final gradation [14].
(Eq 2)
(Eq 3)
Figure 1. Definition of relative breakage, Br [15].
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
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doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
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2. Materials and methodology
Sand deposits were obtained from three different locations in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
The sand soil samples were collected from three different coastal areas at Kuantan district, which are
Pantai Teluk Cempedak (PTC), Pantai Taman Gelora (PTG) and Pantai Batu Hitam (PBH). The soil
samples were oven-dried at 110°C for 24 hours prior to conducting basic engineering properties tests.
Approximately 1kg of soil samples from each location was isolated for sieve analysis test and the
remaining soil was used for other relevant tests. The samples were then sieved by using ASTM
standard for both the original soil and the crushed sand samples. Particle size distribution (PSD)
curves were plotted and crushing indicators such as Breakage Factor (B10) and Relative Breakage
Index (Br) were analysed.
In order to crush the sand, an automated soil compactor was used as shown in figure 2. Soil samples
from each location were subjected to 500 and 1000 blows that are equivalent to 4 x103 kJ/m3 and 8
x103 kJ/m3 energy respectively. Thereafter, a series of test have been carried out with reference to
standard manual to measure the basic engineering properties. Sieve analysis test (ASTM D422),
specific gravity test using Pycnometer method (BS EN ISO 17892-3:2015) and relative density test
(ASTM D4254, ASTM D4253) are some of the tests used in the analysis. The maximum and the
minimum void ratio of each sample were used to determine relative density of sample. Engineering
property tests were repeated twice for each of the original sample and repeated after crushing on the
same sample again. The particle size distribution of coastal sand samples from three different locations
used in the research is shown in Figure 3.To simulate the actual conditions of ground (that is when a
structure transmits a load onto the sand) in the laboratory, an automatic mechanical compactor was
used to crush the sand sample. The sand samples was crushed using different number of blows (500
blows and 1000 blows) for each sand sample, tests were performed in the same conditions to analyse
the effect of particle breakage using the soil and geotechnical engineering testing facilities. For the
field test, Mackintosh Probe Test was conducted at all the three locations with selected one point test
only. The undrained shear strength was estimated based on Mackintosh blows using equation (4).
(Eq 4)
Where, J is the number of blows.
Figure 2. Automatic soil compactor used to crush soil samples
Mackintosh Probe Test was performed to acquire the undrained shear strength (directly through
correlations) and consistency of the subsoil layering for coastal sandy soils was determined. Meanwhile
the sandy soil samples were tested for shear strength parameters (cohesion and angle of friction) using
Direct Shear Box test in the laboratory. Moisture content test is performed to determine the water
content of the sand soil sample by using simple oven drying method. Specific gravity test is performed
to confirm the type of soil minerals using a density bottle method. Specific gravity was calculated by
the ratio of the mass of unit volume of soil at a specific temperature to the mass of the same volume of
4th National Conference on Wind & Earthquake Engineering
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
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doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
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gas free distilled water at same specific temperature. In granular soils, the relative density of the soil in
the field can be measured according to the formula given in equation 5:
(Eq 5)
Where emax = void ratio in soil in loosest state, emin = void ratio in soil in densest state, and e= natural
void ratio of in-situ soil.
3. Results and discussions
The results and the discussions included in this section only cover a small aspect from the bulk of data
obtained during the process of completing this research. This is because some of the data is deemed
irrelevant with the scope and the objective of this paper outlined in the introduction part.
3.1. Particle size distribution (PSD)
Figure 3 shows the effect on the PSD curve due to crushing of sand. The PSD of sand crushed after
500 blows and 1000 blow was calculated separately. The PSD shows that the percentage of finer sand
for all three samples for different location has increased as the number of blow increases. The particle
size distribution curve of soil samples from all three locations PTC, PTG, and PBH before and after
crushing has been plotted from the result of Sieve Analysis Test which is shown in figure 3 (a), (b) and
(c).
After the different force or energy level applied on each sand samples, the sand particles tend to break.
The breakage of sand particles were evaluated and calculated using Breakage Factor and Breakage
Index equations. The pattern of soil breakage can be easily observed in samples after being crushed
when plotted in graphs like in figure 3. Based on this study, the particle breakage pattern of soil
samples is well reflected as the horizontal distance between the curves of before and after crushing
process is not similar. The ratio of D15 of the soil particles before crushing to the D15 of the soil
particles after crushing is analyzed for each soil samples. Breakage index of 1.0 is seen as the
breakage does not occur with the soil particles. On the other hand, if the particles undergo signifiant
amount of crushing, the anticipated breakage index should be more than 1.0.
(a)
4th National Conference on Wind & Earthquake Engineering
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
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doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
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(b)
(c)
Figure 3. Particle size distribution curve of (a) PTC (b) PTG and (c) PBH.
The results of the Breakage Index indicates that soil sample PBH has the highest crushability
compared to PTC and PTG. Moreover PBH soil particle breaks until a certain limit where there is no
changes in breakage index was seen when the number of blows were increased to 1000. The breakage
index of soil sample PTC at different level of energy shows that particles crushed gradually as the
number of blows increased. Meanwhile, soil sample PTG has the lowest crushability since there is no
breakage occurred when the 500 blows was applied and the particles only started to crush after the
blows were increased to 1000. A slight increase was seen in the breakage index of PTG after 1000
blows. All the soil samples are classified as Poorly Graded Sand (SP) according to Unified Soil
Classification System (USCS). The summary of classification index from sieve analysis test is
recorded in Table 1.
Table 1. Summary of classification index for soil sample tested using sieve analysis.
Location
Type
D10
D30
D60
D25
D75
Cu
Cc
PTC
Original
0.395
0.800
1.500
0.715
2.000
3.797
1.080
500 blows
0.390
0.800
1.500
0.715
2.000
3.846
1.094
1000 blows
0.310
0.640
1.200
0.570
1.700
3.871
1.101
PBH
Original
0.145
0.210
0.325
0.195
0.460
2.241
0.936
500 blows
0.140
0.210
0.330
0.195
0.460
2.357
0.955
1000 blows
0.130
0.190
0.380
0.180
0.390
2.923
0.731
PTG
Original
0.135
0.450
0.420
0.220
0.530
3.111
3.571
500 blows
0.100
0.220
0.390
0.195
0.510
3.900
1.241
1000 blows
0.095
0.215
0.390
0.190
0.510
4.105
1.248
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
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doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
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3.2. Engineering properties
Table 2 shows the engineering properties of the sample before and after crushing. After the maximum
crushing impact, the value of specific gravity for both PBH and PTG decreased while PTC increased.
Similarly, the value of relative density for PTC, PBH and PTG too changes after crushing. Similar to
any other standard tests, three repetitions of soil testing for each location were used and the average
result of these three sets were used as the value of specific gravity of the soil. Before the soil samples
were crushed, the specific gravity value attained was 2.81, 2.7, and 2.83 for Pantai Teluk Cempedak,
Pantai Batu Hitam, and Pantai Taman Gelora was respectively. However, after soil samples were
crushed and tested for its specific gravity, the values changed significantly. The value of specific
gravity for both Pantai Batu Hitam and Pantai Taman Gelora decreases after the crushing, which are
2.64 and 2.55 respectively. For Pantai Teluk Cempedak the value of specific gravity decreases after
the samples crush with 500 blows (2.72) but increases after 1000 blows (2.78). The results shown in
Table 2 on relative density was calculated using equation (5). The value obtained for the sandy soil
samples from Pantai Teluk Cempedak, Pantai Batu Hitam and Pantai Taman Gelora is 54.57%,
54.02% and 56.69% respectively. However, after the samples were crushed using an automatic
mechanical compactor with 500 blows and 1000 blows, the values of the relative density increases.
The value obtained after the maximum crushing for the sandy soil samples from Pantai Teluk
Cempedak, Pantai Batu Hitam and Pantai Taman Gelora is 57.64%, 56.99% and 66.9% respectively.
Table 2. Engineering properties of soil and the crushing effects.
Properties
Before Crushing
After Crushing
500 blows
1000 blows
PTC
PBH
PTG
PTC
PBH
PTG
PTC
PBH
PTG
Specific
Gravity
2.81
2.70
2.83
2.72
2.67
2.69
2.78
2.64
2.55
Relative
Density
(%)
54.57
54.02
56.69
49.72
47.06
58.11
57.64
56.99
66.9
3.3. Relationship between type of sand and material properties
The result of the mackintosh probe test is shown in figure 4 (a), (b) and (c) for all the three locations,
PTC, PTG and PBH respectively. The results show a good pattern of number of blows when plotted
with depth for all three locations. The increases in undrained shear strength with increasing soil depth
are well portrait using equation (4). The maximum depth obtained with 400 blows is at 3.6 m, 4.5 m
and 5.4 m for PTC, PTG and PBH respectively. The graph of undrained shear strength, Su versus the
number of blows (J-Value) was constructed not only to develop the correlation but also to identify the
cohesion of soil at the surface where sampling was carried out. The average undrained shear strength
predicted from the Mackintosh probe test is 40 kPa. This value is reasonably close to cohesion value
obtained from Direct Shear Box test conducted on samples before crushing. A graph of cohesion
versus the number of blows in samples is shown as in figure 5. The data clearly show that as the sand
samples are crushed there is a significant change in shear parameters. The impact is more when the
cohesion value drops drastically like in PTC sample. Figure 6 and 7 both shows the impact of crushing
to sandy soil in coastal area. The indicators such as the Breakage Index and the Breakage Factors show
that the variances in impacts are dependent on the type of granular soil and its characteristics. The
mineral properties and the shape factors certainly play a vital role in samples collected from different
locations for this study. Figure 6 and 7 both show that sample from PTG is more vulnerable in terms
of potential to crushing.
4th National Conference on Wind & Earthquake Engineering
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
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doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4. Mackintosh probe test versus undrained shear strength in (a) PTC (b) PTG and (c) PBH
Figure 5. The effect of crushing impact to cohesion value in sandy soil
Figure 6. Relative breakage versus number of blows in sandy soil
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Cohesion (kPa)
Number of Blows
PTC
PBH
PTG
1.049 1.092
1.167
1.273
1.500
1.875
0.600
0.800
1.000
1.200
1.400
1.600
1.800
2.000
0500 1000 1500
Relative Breakage (Br)
Number of Blows
PTC
PBH
PTG
4th National Conference on Wind & Earthquake Engineering
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 682 (2021) 012021
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doi:10.1088/1755-1315/682/1/012021
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Figure 7. Breakage factor versus number of blows in sandy soil.
4. Conclusion
Crushing of particles did bring significant changes in the geotechnical properties of soil. The
following conclusions can be made from this research work.
The type of mineral, relative density and shape (angularity) of soil samples from Pantai Teluk
Cempedak, Pantai Taman Gelora and Pantai Batu Hitam influence the breakage potential of these
soils. The Breakage Index and Breakage Factor is used to gauge the crushability potential of the soil
samples and also to determine the relationship between the particle breakage and the influencing
factors such as the relative density and angularity of soil samples.
1) The gradation (PSD) curve of crushed soil changed significantly. Increase in the number of blows
crushing on soil particles will increases the percentage of finer particles from various sieve,
especially the ones with larger aperture size.
2) The specific gravity for PBH and PTG decrease while PTC increase as the number of blow
crushing the sample increase. In addition, the relative density increases as the number of blow
increase.
3) Breakage Factor and Breakage Index increase with an increase in number of blows reflecting the
changes in PSD curve. Hence, Breakage factor and Breakage Index can be used as an indicator to
predict changes in shear strength parameters.
The change of cohesion will affect the shear strength of the samples. The shear strength for PBH and
PTG increase as the cohesion increase while for PTC the shear strength decrease as the cohesion
decrease.
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Acknowledgments
Authors would like to acknowledge assistance from the technical staff and the encouragement from
colleagues. This research work was carried out with financial support from UMP grant RDU1703308.
