Shear strength properties of Hong Kong soils for slope stability

Abstract

With the recent advancement in technology, the method, accuracy and speed of slope stability analysis have been vastly improved. Nevertheless, the reliability and appropriateness of such analysis can be very much in doubt if the soil behaviour, in particular the shear strength behaviour, is not fully understood. The objective of this paper is therefore to evaluate the shear strength behaviour of various soil types in Hong Kong. This comprises the collection, processing and analysis of the laboratory and field works carried out in the past few decades, in particular the triaxial compression testing in the laboratory and standard penetration test (SPT) in the field. For correlating SPT with soil shear strength, a fairly large number of carefully controlled site investigation works with SPT are carried out both above and below any Mazier sampling. Laboratory triaxial tests are then carried out in these Mazier samples. Finally, it is hoped that a basically quantitative relationship between soil shear strength and SPT can be obtained as this would enable a soil shear strength profile to be established once the corresponding SPT profile has been determined on site by carrying out SPT in adequate number of drill holes.