Chapter 1: Introduction Project Background The rapid increase rate of economy and social development in Malaysia has sparked

demand for road infrastructure that is able to connect different cities in shortest and fastest way possible. The outlying cities of Kuala Lumpur - Selangor have now aggressively taken part to contribute to local industry which made them appear on the radar as being the busy cities. Transportation system is now forced to reach out to these cities to accommodate their rapid progress. The KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway, abbreviated as LATAR Expressway is a newly built highway connecting Ijok, a township in Kuala Selangor and Templer which is located near Rawang. LATAR highway was officially opened for operation on June 2011 and it marked the fourth highway built by the government in Klang Valley east-west link after Federal Highway, NKVE and Shah Alam Expressway. The highway stretches to 33 km end to end which takes about 18 minutes to complete the whole course. It is carefully planned and designed to feature 4 interchanges which merge to three existing major highways for ease of access namely Guthrie Corridor Expressway, PLUS North-South Expressway and the future West Coast Highway. Since its opening, several slope failures have been recognized along the stretch of LATAR Expressway which cause disturbance to the smoothness of traffic and rehabilitation process is being carried out as of now. Basically, landslide is defined as movement of rock or earth down the slope where the shear stress exceeds the shear strength of the withholding material. This paper is to provide a report on the causes of failure by performing shear strength and consolidation tests on the soil at the site.

Problem Statement There are many factors affecting the failure of a slope and rainfall is one of the biggest factors in Malaysia. Our country receives rainfall of 2000mm to 3000mm annually. This amount of rainfall requires a proper and efficient drainage system to channel the excess water back to nature. There were problems at some part of the internal drainage system of LATAR Expressway which has led to saturation of water in the soil supporting the pavement at the slope after some time. The problems may arise during construction or design stage which will be discovered after an interview session with their representatives. Excess water penetrates the ground making the slope in active stage thus decreasing the overall strength of the slope. Furthermore, the excess water penetration along with the existing ground water directly increased the pore water pressure. The slope becomes instable as the different planes are sliding between each other. The increase moisture content reduces the shear strength of slope and therefore decreases the slope safety. Over time, the weight of the pavement becomes an excess burden which pushes the slope to slide down causing the slope to fail.

Research Objectives 1. To investigate the shear strength of soil of the slope when it fails by Triaxial test 2. Consolidation test 3. To compare the lab result against the professional test results to gain insight on the accuracy of the tests.

Scope of Research 1. 2. 3. 4. To conduct brief laboratory tests to meet the above objectives Record observations and readings from the laboratory test Compile and analyse the data obtained to gain useful conclusions Comparison of lab results and analysis against results obtained professionally on limited conditions only.

Literature Review The Concept of Slope Instability Slope stability is based on the interplay between two types of forces: driving forces and resisting forces. Driving forces promote downslope movement of material. Resisting forces deter the movement. When driving forces overcome resisting forces, the slope is unstable and results in mass wasting. The main driving force in most land movements is gravity. The main resisting force is the material's shear strength. Driving force are mainly gravity, it is to be noted that gravity does not act alone as slope angle, climate, slope material, and water contribute to the effect of gravity. Mass movement occurs much more frequently on steep slopes than on shallow slopes.

On a slope, the force of gravity can be resolved into two components: a component acting perpendicular to the slope and component acting tangential to the slope.

Water plays a key role in producing slope failure. In the form of rivers and wave action, water erodes the base of slopes, removing support, which increases driving forces. Water can also increase the driving force by loading, i.e., adding to the total mass that is subjected to the force of gravity. The weight (load) on the slope increases when water fills previously empty pore spaces and fractures. An increase in water contributes to driving forces that result in slope failure.

Resisting forces act oppositely of driving forces. The resistance to downslope movement is dependent on the shear strength of the slope material. Shear strength is a function of cohesion which is the ability of particles to attract and hold each other together and internal friction, which is friction between grains within a material. Chemical Weathering (interaction of water with surface rock and soil) slowly weakens slope material (primarily rock), reducing its shear strength, therefore reducing resisting forces. The shear strength of the slope material is decreased by increasing the pore water pressure (pressure that develops in pore spaces due to the increased amount of water).

Type of Slope Failures Slope failure, is the downslope movement of rock debris and soil in response to gravitational stresses. Three major types of slope failures are classified by the type of downslope movement namely falls, slides, and flows.

Falls involve vertical drops while slides and flows involve downward and outward motion. Sliding involves a coherent mass. Flowing involves the moving mass behaving like a viscous fluid

Determining The Shear Strength of Slope - Triaxial Shear Test A triaxial shear test is a common method to measure the mechanical properties of many deformable solids, especially soil (e.g. sand, clay) and rock, and other granular materials or powders. There are several variations on the test The triaxial test is one of the most versatile and widely performed geotechnical laboratory tests, allowing the shear strength and stiffness of soil and rock to be determined for use in geotechnical design. Advantages over simpler procedures, such as the direct shear test, include the ability to control specimen drainage and take measurements of pore water pressures. Primary parameters obtained from the test may include the angle of shearing resistance , cohesion c, and undrained shear strength cu, although other parameters such as the shear stiffness G, compression index Cc, and permeability k may also be determined. The triaxial test typically involves placing a cylindrical specimen of soil, ranging from 38mm to 100mm diameter, into a cell that can be pressurised. Most specimens have an approximate 2:1 height-to-diameter ratio, and are sealed within a rubber membrane. Following this initial preparation the specimen is saturated, consolidated, and sheared, allowing the soil response to be observed under conditions that may approximate those in-situ. During the shear stage the soil is loaded axially, either in compression, or less-commonly in extension.

There are three primary triaxial tests conducted in the laboratory, each allowing the soil response for differing engineering applications to be observed. These are: Unconsolidated Undrained test (UU) Consolidated Undrained test (CU) Consolidated Drained test (CD) The unconsolidated undrained (UU) test is the simplest and fastest procedure, with soil specimens loaded whilst only total stresses are controlled and recorded. This allows the undrained shear strength cu to be determined, which is suitable for assessing soil stability in the short-term (e.g. during or directly following a construction project). Note this test is generally performed on cohesive soil specimens. The consolidated drained (CD) test on the other hand is applicable to describing long-term loading response, providing strength parameters determined under effective stress control (i.e. and c). The test can however take a significant time to complete when using cohesive soil, given the shear rate must be slow enough to allow negligible pore water pressure changes. Finally the consolidated undrained (CU) test is the most common triaxial procedure, as it allows strength parameters to be determined based on the effective stresses (i.e. and c) whilst permitting a faster rate of shearing compared with the CD test. This is achieved by recording the excess pore pressure change within the specimen as shearing takes place. The stresses applied to a soil or rock specimen when running a triaxial compression test are displayed in Figure below. The confining stress c is applied by pressurising the cell fluid surrounding the specimen it is equal to the radial stress r, or minor principal stress 3. The deviator stress q is generated by applying an axial strain a to the soil the deviator stress acts in addition to the confining stress in the axial direction, with these combined stresses equal to the axial stress a, or major principal stress 1. The stress state is said to be isotropic when 1 = 3, and anisotropic when 1 3.

Chapter 3 Methodology Triaxial Test Procedure The following is a basic outline of the triaxial test procedure: 1. The specimen is a cylindrical sample normally 100 mm (4 in.) in diameter by 200 mm (8 in.) high (Figure 1a). The sample is generally compacted in the laboratory; however, undisturbed samples are best if available (which is rare). 2. The specimen is enclosed vertically by a thin "rubber" membrane and on both ends by rigid surfaces (platens) as sketched in Figure 1b. 3. The sample is placed in a pressure chamber and a confining pressure is applied (s3) as sketched in Figure 1c. 4. The deviator stress is the axial stress applied by the testing apparatus (s1) minus the confining stress (s3). In other words, the deviator stress is the repeated stress applied to the sample. These stresses are further illustrated in Figure 2a. 5. The resulting strains are calculated over a gauge length, which is designated by "L" (refer to Figure 2b). 6. Basically, the initial condition of the sample is unloaded (no induced stress). When the deviator stress is applied, the sample deforms, changing in length as shown in Figure 2c. This change in sample length is directly proportional to the stiffness.