Allophane Clays
Allophane Clays
Allophane Clays
Laurie Wesley
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand,
l.wesley@auckland.ac.nz
clays,
Introduction
Soil mechanics grew up in northern Europe and North
America, and most of its concepts regarding soil
behaviour developed from the study of sedimentary
soils. In fact, most of the early concepts came from
the study of remoulded sedimentary soils and involved
investigating the inuence of stress history on their
behaviour, in the belief that this was simulating the
inuence of stresses which soils may be subject to
during their formation processes. Most text books on
soil mechanics and university courses on the subject
place considerable emphasis on stress history soils
tend to be divided into normally consolidated and overconsolidated on this basis, and behavioural frameworks
are developed around this stress history concept.
This might be all very well if all soils were sedimentary
soils. This of course is clearly not the case. Large
areas of the earth (including large areas in the North
Island of New Zealand) consist of residual soils, and
the application of concepts coming from sedimentary
soils may or may not be relevant to these soils. It is
Re-deposition
in lakes or the ocean
Formation processes
Figure 1 shows diagrammatically the physical processes
that to the formation of sedimentary and residual soils.
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Foundation design
Consolidation behaviour
(a) Magnitude (stress/deformation curves). Figure
3 shows typical consolidation test results from one
residual soil type - the tropical red clay found in Java,
Indonesia. Although it is standard practice to plot
consolidation test results as void ratio versus log
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Figure 5: Pore water pressure state above and below the water
table
Soil
cv m2 /day
0.01 to 10
0.07 to 0.7
0.01 to 200
Figure 7: Inuence
of remoulding on
consolidation rate
Shear strength
It is not possible to make many categorical statements
regarding the shear strength of residual soils; the
following observations are generalisations and should
be treated with some caution. It is reasonably true
to assert (excluding montmorillonite black cotton
soils) that the shear strength of residual soils, whether
expressed as undrained shear strength or effective
strength parameters, is generally higher than that of
sedimentary soils. It is rare for the undrained strength
to be less than about 75 kPa, and is generally between
100 and 200 kPa. Their f` values are generally above
30o, and they have signicant values of the cohesion
intercept c. In the case of some allophane rich
volcanic ash soils both the peak fp` and residual fr`
values may be higher than 35o. Figure 8 shows the
results of triaxial tests on two residual soils; the rst is
for volcanic ash soils and the second for a clay (known
as Middle clay) derived from weathered sandstone.
The results from volcanic ash soil in the upper gure
show a relatively small variation in the shear strength;
this is not surprising since volcanic ash soils are generally
free of discontinuities and are of reasonably uniform
composition. The lower gure shows the inuence
of structural defects (macro- structure) in the parent
rock that are still present in the soil. It is clear that in
the latter case it would be almost impossible to infer
reasonable design parameters from results of this sort.
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Slope stability
There are several aspects of the stability of residual soil
slopes that are of particular interest to the geotechnical
engineer. These include the following:
(a) slopes in residual soils (excluding black cotton
soils) generally remain stable at much steeper angles
than those in most sedimentary soils. Slopes of 450 or
steeper are not uncommon, and cuts can often be made
as steep as 600 without danger of slip failure,
(b) slope failures in residual soils, especially when
steep slopes are involved are unlikely to be deep seated
circular failures. They are more likely to be relatively
shallow, with fairly planar failure surfaces. However, the
volume of material involved may still be very large,
(c) slips and landslides in residual soils generally occur
during periods of heavy rainfall, and are the result of
temporary increases in the pore water pressure in the
slope,
Figure 8: Triaxial test results from two types of residual soils
Bearing Capacity
As mentioned above, the permeability and consolidation
rates with residual soils are generally high, and in
situations where residual soils are subject to external
loading by the construction of foundations it is likely
that generated pore pressures will dissipate almost
immediately and the soils will remain in the drained
state. This means that design using undrained strength
will be conservative, as there will be some increase
in strength as the load on the foundation increases.
However, this is not an argument against the use of
undrained strength to estimate the bearing capacity of
the soil for foundation design purposes. During rapid
load application, such as during seismic loading, the soil
will still behave in an undrained manner, and for this
reason especially, design should be based on undrained
strength. There are also strong practical arguments
in favour of using undrained strength, as this can
be measured relatively easily and reliably. Both eld
methods (e.g. Dutch penetrometer) and laboratory
methods (unconned compression or vane test)
can be used to obtain reliable undrained strength
values, whereas the measurement of drained strength
parameters c` and f` is more difcult and less certain.
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Formation
The formation and composition of allophane clay is
complex, and most of the research and literature on the
subject comes from the discipline of soil science rather
than soil mechanics. This research and literature has
grown enormously in the last two or three decades since
the term allophane rst found its way into geotechnical
literature, and it shows a number of new and interesting
ndings. Firstly, it shows that allophane seldom occurs
by itself. Instead, it is almost invariably found with other
clay minerals, especially a mineral called imogolite. It
seems to be almost inseparably linked to imogolite, and
many papers on allophane are in fact on allophane and
imogolite rather than on allophane alone. Secondly, it
shows that allophane is not strictly amorphous, as early
literature asserted. Both allophane and imogolite have
some crystalline structure, albeit of a very different
nature to other clay minerals.
Structure
The precise structure of allophane clays is somewhat
problematic. Their extraordinarily high natural water
contents and void ratios (described in the next section)
clearly indicate an unusual material, and call for an
explanation in terms of either structure or chemical
composition (or both). Various explanations have been
offered over the years. As mentioned above, allophane
has been described in the past as non-crystalline
or amorphous, and gell-like. However, electron
microscopy studies over the past 10 years or so (Wada,
1989 and Jacquet, 1990) show that the material in its
natural state does have an ordered structure consisting
of aggregations of spherical allophane particles with
imogolite threads weaving among them, or forming
bridges between them.
50 nm
Figure 13: Electron micrograph of allophane and immogolite
(after Wada, 1989).
Inuence of drying
Drying has a very important effect on allophane clays.
Frost (1967) gave the rst systematic account of this
effect for both air and oven drying on tropical soils
belonging to the allophane and halloysite group. He
showed that clays from the mountainous districts of
Papua New Guinea with values of Plasticity Index
ranging from about 30 to 80 in their natural state
become non-plastic when air or oven dried. Wesley
(1973) describes similar effects from the allophane clays
of Java, Indonesia. The properties of the clay described
in this paper apply to the clay in its natural state, i.e.
without air or oven drying, unless otherwise stated.
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Atterberg limits
Undrained strength
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.
Compaction characteristics
The compaction behaviour of typical allophane clay was
illustrated earlier in Figure 10. The natural water content
was 166%, and the natural curve was obtained by drying
back the soil in steps from this initial water content.
Fresh soil was used for each point. The test was then
repeated three times, rstly after oven drying, secondly
after air drying, and nally after limited air drying (to w
= 65%). The material was then wetted up in stages, using
fresh soil for each point. The results show the dramatic
changes caused by drying. When dried from its natural
water content the compaction curve is almost at, with
only a very poorly dened optimum water content. On
re-wetting, the behaviour becomes more conventional,
with clearly dened optimum water contents and peak
dry densities. It is evident from this that almost any
result can be obtained if the test involves drying and
re-wetting. This result is from an Indoneisan allophane
clay. New Zealand allophane clays may not show such
a dramatic effect because of their lower allophane
content.
Figure 23 shows the effect of repeated compaction
on allophane soils. Some allophane clays are of high
sensitivity, and others are not: this is reected in the
curves in Figure 23. The strength of the soil has been
measured after compaction using a series of different
(but known) compactive efforts. The compactive effort
is indicated by the number of hammer blows. A cone
has been pushed into the soil to obtain a measure of
strength; this is the cone index value shown in the
gure. The graphs show that in general there is a
marked decrease in strength as the number of blows
increases. Presumably the structure of the soil is being
Erosion resistance
It is an interesting observation that both in their
undisturbed and re-compacted state, allophane clays
are remarkably resistant to erosion. It is only when they
are cultivated and allowed to partially dry at the surface
that they become susceptible to erosion. Observation
of road cuttings in Southeast Asia as well as in New
Zealand (Taranaki and the central volcanic plateau)
shows that negligible erosion occurs from the cut faces.
In Indonesia, the drying of the face appears to result
in the formation of a hard crust which is resistant
to erosion. It is also evident in terraced rice-elds that
negligible erosion takes place as the irrigation water
ows from one terrace to the next terrace.
In relation to erodibility, the writer has investigated
the question of the dispersivity of allophone clays by
carrying out pin-hole dispersion tests on allophane
clays from Indonesia and New Zealand. The results are
described by Wesley and Chan (1991). None of these
tests showed any evidence of erosion or dispersivity.
References
British Geological Society Engineering Group Working Party
Report: Tropical Residual Soils (1990). Vol. 23, No1, 1-101
BS 5930 (1981). Code of Practice for Site Investigations,
British Standards Institute, London
Frost, R.J.. Importance of correct pre-testing preparation
of some tropical soils. Proc. First Southeast Asian Regional
Conf. on Soil Engineering, Bangkok: 44-53
Jacket, D. (1990). Sensitivity to remoulding of some volcanic
ash soils in New Zeland. Engineering Geology 28 (1): 1-25
Kenney and Lau (1984) Temporal changes of groundwater
pressure in a natural clay slope. Canadian Geotechnical
Journal. Vol. 21, 1984
Kuno, G., Shinoki, R., Kondo, T. & Tsuchiya, C. (1978). On
the construction methods of a motorway embankment by a
sensitive volcanic clay, Proc. Conf. on Clay Fills, London,
pp. 149-156
Moore, P.J., and Styles, J.R. 1988. Some characteristics of
volcanic ash soil . Proc. Second Int. Conf. on Geomechanics
in Tropical Soils. Singapore: 161-166
Wesley, L. (2009). Behaviour and geotechnical properties of residual soils and allophane clays.
Obras y Proyectos 6, 5-10.