THE

bY PETER LUMB, M.Sc.(Eng.), SYNOPSIS

The residual soils of Hong Kong, formed by the decomposition of igneous rocks, can be classified into three distinct types. The soils range from sandy gravel to clayey silt, and are normally unsaturated in the natural state. Tests on undisturbed samples show that the engineering properties vary considerably but that the differences between the three types of soil are statistically significant. The drained cohesion of the soils is strongly correlated with the degree of saturation, but the drained angle of shearing resistance can be regarded as a random variable quantity. Stress-strain relations show that the soils can be considered approximately as elastic bodies whose modulus increases linearly with depth.

HONG KONG
A.M.I.C.E.*

Les sols ditritiques de Hong Kong, form& par la decomposition de roches ignees, peuvent &tre classes en trois types distincts. Les sols varient du gravier sableux au limon argileux, et soet normalement non satures a letat naturel. Des essais sur des Bchantillons intacts montrent que les proprietes mecaniques varient considerablement mais que les differences statistiques entre les trois types de sols sont significatives. La cohesion drain&e des sols est fortement en correlation avec le degre de saturation, mais Iangle drain6 de la resistance au cisaillement peut etre consider.4 comme une quantite a variable aleatoire. Les rapports entre la contrainte et la deformation montrent que les sols peuvent etre consider& a peu p&s comme des corps Blastiques dont le module croit dune man&e lineaire avec la profondeur.

INTRODUCTION

The principal soils of Hong Kong have been formed by the in-situ decomposition of acid igneous rocks. Because of the sub-tropical climate, with high temperatures and heavy rainfall in the summer, the decomposition processes have been very active and have produced depths of residual soil of the order of 100 ft. Owing to the hilly nature of Hong Kong and the seasonal variations in rainfall the natural soils are generally unsaturated for considerable depths. The degree of saturation changes throughout the year, resulting in seasonal variations in strength which have considerable influence on the stability of natural slopes and cuttings. There are two main types of igneous rock in Hong Kong, granite and rhyolite, and the soils produced from these rocks have different characteristics. Furthermore, the surface soils in the granite areas have been modified by oxidation, producing soils of a nature quite different from the underlying unoxidized soils. Some of the properties of these soils have been described by Fanshawe (1962)r and Lamb (1962), mainly from the point of view of performance in earth dam construction, and by Lumb (1962(a), (b)). The main portion of this Paper will deal with strength and deformability of the soils as determined from tests on undisturbed samples. Undisturbed samples inevitably show more scatter in their properties than remoulded samples and in order to interpret the results a statistical approach will be used. Since the numerical calculations used in testing significances of means, variances, or covariances are of no great interest in themselves, for simplicity the results have been put in the form of high, low, or zero statistical significance in accordance with the following scheme.
Probability of value arising by chance Less than 1 y0 Between 1 y0 and 50j, Greater than 5% . Significance High Low Zero Symbol

: .

: .

L 0

* Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering, University of Hong Kong. 1 The references are given on p. 194.

180

THE

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SOILS

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KONG

IS1

I WCTORIA 2 KWLOON 3KUN TONG 4TWN WAN CWE 5 PLOVER 6!StEK PIK

MILES 5

Fig.

1.

Geological

sketch map of Hong Kong (after B. P.

Ruxton)

GEOLOGICAL

FACTORS

The relevant aspects of the geology of Hong Kong are shown on the sketch map of Fig. 1 (after Ruxton, 1960). The main feature is the central granite batholith which intruded during the Cretaceous Period into older volcanic rocks. Owing to intense weathering and erosion the top of the batholith and its capping have been removed, resulting in the present dishshaped Harbour Area with steep sided slopes. Some sedimentary rocks are found in the north of the Colony, and dyke swarms occur in all areas, but these features are of little engineering importance and further discussion will be limited to the granites and volcanics only. The granite is typically a two-felspar biotite granite of fairly coarse texture, the grain-size being of the order of 2 mm. The average mode determined from 28 thin-section mineral counts is:
Quartz 33% Orthoclase (microcline) Plagioclase Biotite, epidote, etc.

1 / I 21% I

370/;

4:;

Variations from the average in both texture and mineral content do of course occur, and rocks are found ranging from the extremes of coarse grained porphyry to micro-grained aplite, and from syenite with little or no quartz to quartzite with little or no felspar, but these extreme rock types are generally confined to the dykes.

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LUMB

The volcanic rocks range in texture from porphyries to lavas, but are typically rhyolites containing up to 60% phenocrysts but of very fine grained ground-mass, of the order of 0.02 mm. Because of this fine grain-size of the ground-mass no modes have been determined, but chemical analyses reported by Williams et al. (1945) indicated little significant difference in mineral content between granite and rhyolite. Two of these chemical analyses have been re-calculated to give the following proximate compositions. 1

Quartz 33:; 35%

Orthoclase 27% 26%

Plagioclase 33% 35%

Biotite, etc. 7% 401 ,O

Granite Rhyolite

. .

. / . ~

These two proximate compositions are in fair agreement with each other and with the average mode of the granite, and for present purposes it can be taken that the only significant difference between the two rocks is that of grain-size, the granite minerals being of coarse sand size and the rhyolite minerals in the ground-mass of medium-fine silt size. Both rock types are well jointed, but in the granite the joint spacing is of the order of 5 to 10 ft, while in the rhyolite the spacing is much closer, 3 to 12 in.

FORMATIOK

OF THE

RESIDUAL

SOILS

The rocks are decomposed by the chemical action of water on the potentially unstable felspars and biotite, causing an alteration into kaolinite type clay minerals, sericite, and other From examination of the mineral content of the resulting soils it appears secondary minerals. that plagioclase decomposes first, followed by orthoclase and biotite, while the quartz remains Even in the final stages of decomposition some of the orthoclase and biotite unchanged. particles remain intact, although their grain-size becomes progressively smaller (Lumb, During the course of the decomposition, alteration products such as colloidal silica, 1962(b)). potash, and soda, are leached out in solution together with some of the secondary clay minerals, resulting in an increase in porosity. Assuming for the moment no loss of clay minerals but complete alteration of both felspars to kaolinite, the final soil should have a composition and porosity as given below, calculated from the proximate composition of the fresh rocks.
! Granite Rhyolite Quartz 34% 38%

Biotite 11; 6%

Kaolinite 55% 56%

Porosity 44% 42%

Although the alteration of felspars is usually never complete the final porosity of the soils can be rather greater than 50%. In the later stages of decomposition the soils should consist of about 45/0 sand or silt and 55% clay. The maximum clay content actually encountered is only about 35% and, although some of the kaolinite is of fine to medium silt size and not entirely clay size, this figure taken together with the porosity indicates the further loss through leaching of at least 10 to 20% of the fines. The rate of decomposition is primarily governed by the grain-size of the original rock and The wide joint the jointing pattern, which control the ease of penetration of ground-water. spacing of the granite leads to a sequence of decomposition in which a large block of fresh rock is gradually reduced to a spheroidal boulder which itself will eventually decompose. Owing to the coarse grain-size of the granite, the individual mineral grains become separated at a

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183

very early stage but since no relative movement occurs between grams the original texture of the granite is preserved in the final soil. As the boulders decrease in size the rate of decomposition accelerates, and it is very noticeable that boulders if present are all large with a size of about 10 ft, showing that the final reduction of the boulders must take place very rapidly. At the surface of the decomposed granite an aerated zone develops in which the ironcontaining minerals are oxidized, the resulting ferric oxide giving a characteristic red colour to the soil. This soil, which is the final completely decomposed phase of the sequence, is sufficiently different in nature and properties from the underlying incompletely decomposed phase to warrant a special name, and will be called by the local term red earth for convenience. The granitic texture of the soil is lost in the red earth phase, presumably because of some readjustment in position of the grains.

Fig. 2.

Residual,

colluvial, and transported

soils in Harbour

Area (after L. Berry)

As the decomposition proceeds from fresh rock to red earth the felspar grains become progressively smaller, so the grading of the soil changes from coarse sand, when the grains first separate, through silty sand to clayey sand. The unoxidized coarse sand and silty sand will be referred to simply as decomposed granite. The decomposition of the rhyolite follows the same general pattern as the granite, but with modifications due to the differences in grain-size and joint spacing. In the early stages the boulders present are small, with a size of 1 or 2 ft, and these boulders decompose at a slower rate than the granite boulders, owing to their lower permeability to water. As the boulders decrease in size they produce first gravel and then sand, but even the sand grains are still composite and not individual quartz or felspar grains, as is the case for the granite. Eventually all the sand fraction should decompose and in the final completely decomposed phase the coarsest grains present would be the silt-size quartz grains. Oxidation at the surface is not as pronounced as with the decomposed granite and it is not necessary to distinguish between The soil changes from well graded sandy oxidized and unoxidized decomposed rhyolite. gravel in the early stages to clayey silt in the final stage, and the original rhyolitic texture and joint planes are preserved.

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LUMB

The depth of decomposition varies considerably even over short distances, owing to the inherent variations in grain-size, mineral content, jointing pattern, and drainage conditions, but generally the decomposed granite is thicker than the decomposed rhyolite. The extent of the decomposition in the commercially important Harbour Area of Kowloon and Hong Kong is shown in Fig. 2 (after Berry, 1957), where the decomposed granite is divided into two zones; the first in which decomposition is shallow (0 to 20 ft), and the second in which it is deep (20 to 200 ft). Usually the rhyolite decomposes to depths of up to 60 ft, although depths of over 100 ft have been noted in some areas such as Plover Cove. The change from fresh to decomposed granite is always sharp but the basal surface generally bears no relation to the surface topography, while with the rhyolite there is a more gradual transition from fresh to decomposed and zones of soft rock are often encountered. The red earth at the surface of the decomposed granite is normally only a few feet thick and its lower boundary does tend to follow the ground surface.
0.002 0.06 2 nn

IO0

RED

EARTH

62

DECGMPGSED

GRANITE

AND

RED

EARTH

z ;

CLAY

SILT Dl?COPlPOSED

SAND RHYOLITE

GRAVEL

Fig. 3.

Limits

of grading curves for decomposed granite (106 samples), and decomposed rhyolite (46 samples)

red earth (14 samples),

Owing to the hilly nature of Hong Kong large scale landslides have resulted in colluvial fans and cones being formed at the foot of steep slopes, as indicated in Fig. 2. These colluvial materials are similar in character to the residual soils and will not be discussed separately. From Fig. 1 it will be seen that the commercially important districts such as Victoria and the north coast of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, and the rapidly developing industrial areas of Kun Tong and Tsun Wan, are almost entirely in the granite areas. However, the rhyolite areas are also being developed, particularly in connexion with building and road construction generally and earth dam construction at Shek Pik. The red earth is now of very limited extent in the development areas owing to its removal during site formation, but is of importance as a source of impermeable material for earth dam construction (Lamb, 1962). The results to be presented here are from tests carried out at the University of Hong Kong on samples mainly from the Harbour Area of Fig. 2, together with some results obtained by other investigators on samples from Plover Cove. No trend or distinction was found between

THE

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185

samples of the same type of soil from different parts of the Colony, decomposed rhyolite from Hong Kong Island having the same properties as decomposed rhyolite from Plover Cove or Shek Pik, and so on.

GRADING

AND

NATURAL

STATE

OF THE

SOILS

From the manner of formation of the soils a distinction between the three soil types can be made by a visual inspection of the coarse-medium sand fraction, in accordance with the following scheme.

Soil Decomposed Red earth Decomposed granite rhyolite

Coarse-medium Abundant. Abundant. (a) Sparse.

sand fraction

Both quartz and felspar Only quartz Composite grains

/ @) Absent The grading curves of all samples fall within the limits shown in Fig. 3. There is a considerable overlap between the three groups and consequently a textural classification system based on the quantities of gravel, sand, silt, and clay is of little value. The shapes of the grading curves, on the other hand, are quite distinct and it is proposed to use a classification system based on the following parameters derived from the percentile diameters D, mm. Median Deviation Skewness Md = log,,

Dv = 4 log,,

D,, (D75/D25)

Sk = 4 log,,{=}

In a previous Paper (Lumb, 1962(b)) the median size D,,itself was used to characterize the decomposed granite, but since this parameter ranges from 0.0056 to 2.7 mm when all three soil types are considered it is more convenient to re-define the Median Md as the logarithm of Dso, giving a more restricted range of -2.25 to +0.43.
Table Mean Soil d.g. 112 s n
m

1 deviations Sk of properties e0 0.646 0.218 85 0.650 0.173 10 0.726 0.193 74 wx) 74.1 22.4 77 88.6 8.9 74 tan 4 0.694 0.098 57 0x540 0.124 8 0.596 0.090 47

values Md

and standard

Dv 0.717 0.223 106 1.350 0.200 10 0.668 0.228 47

-0.241 0.344 106 -0.714 0.320 14 - 1.480 0.385 48

-0.138 0.130 106 - 0.450 0.322 10 + 0.097 0.175 47 granite rhyolite

r. e.

s 12 s n
m

d.r.

Note: d.g. = decomposed r.e. =red earth d.r. =decomposed

112 mean value = s =standard deviation n =number of samples

186
SignifWmce Soils d.g./r.e. d.g./d.r. d.r.1r.e.

PETER

LUhIB

Table 2 of differences between means or variances Md Dv Sk

% :

S, ii

tan 4 H H

. . .

H :HHO-L

Table 1 gives the mean results. There is a highly shown in Table 2, except rhyolite, and the following

values m, standard deviations s, and number of samples n, for all significant difference between the means of the three groups, as for the deviations Dv of decomposed granite and decomposed criteria can serve to classify a soil.

Soil Decomposed granite Red earth . Decomposed rhyoiite

Md

. .
.

. .

. .
.

> -043 < - 0.83

Dv <l.l >l.l < 1.1

Sk --ve --ve +ve

These limits are shown in Fig. 4 and although there is still some overlapping, the separation between groups is reasonably good. It should be noted in Fig. 4 that the direction of increasing decomposition is upwards and to the left for the decomposed granite and downwards and to the left for the decomposed rhyolite. Within each group the samples ought to form a continuous series since they are all either granite or rhyolite at different stages of decomposition, and the various parameters are in fact related to one another to a certain extent, as is shown by the high significance of at least one correlation coefficient per group in Table 3. Since the red earth and decomposed granite are derived from the same source these two groups should form a continuous series amongst themselves, and this is borne out by the lack of or low significant difference between correlation coefficients as shown in Table 4. The decomposed rhyolite, however, shows a highly significant difference from the combined decomposed granite and red earth, as would be expected. Besides the grading, other factors of importance are the natural voids ratio e,, and the natural degree of saturation S,, of the undisturbed samples, and Table 1 gives the means and standard deviations of these properties. The values of these properties for the in-situ soils may be rather different from those of the samples due to sampling disturbance, and this will be commented on briefly in the next section. For the decomposed granite and red earth there is no significant difference between voids ratios and no correlation between voids ratio and grading, but the voids ratio of the decomposed rhyolite is significantly greater than that of the decomposed granite and is also strongly correlated with the median Md. The voids ratio
Table 3 Correlation between factors soil d.g. :.;. . . Md/Dv E H Dv/Sk : L Sk/Ma :: 0 %lMd : H eo/Dv 0 : %/Sk : 0 4% H 0

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187

ought to be correlated with grading in so far as both factors depend on the degree of decomposition but presumably this effect is masked by other factors in the case of the decomposed granite.
Table Significance 4 correlation coeffkients

of differences between

s,,,.
d.g.1r.e. (d.g. +r.e.)/d.r.

.I* . .

Sk;

The degree of saturation for the soils depends on the seasonal variations in rain-water infiltration, in cases where no permanent water-table exists, but it is of interest to note that there is a significant difference in S, between the decomposed granite and the decomposed rhyolite, as shown in Table 2. Owing to the finer size of the grains in the decomposed rhyolite as compared with the decomposed granite, the pores themselves must also be smaller, and hence the pore-water tension in unsaturated decomposed rhyolite will be greater for equal voids ratios. Also, the degree of saturation at a certain pore-water tension ought to depend inversely on the voids ratio, and hence on the average the degree of saturation should decrease with increasing voids ratio. This is found to occur with the decomposed granite, as is shown by the highly significant correlation between S, and e, in Table 3. For the decomposed rhyolite the variations in S, are too small for the effect of voids ratio to be noticeable.

I.6

MD 0 --CCNTCURS OF SK -+ . CECOMPOSED RED EARTH RHYOLITE GRANITE

DfZOMPOYD

Fig. 4.

Median,

deviation,

and skewness

for all samples

38s

PETER

LUMB

Fig.

5.

Ratio of immediate to final compression against degree of saturation

Fig.

6. CoeffkAnt against degree

of consolidation of saturation

SOIL

STRENGTH

AND

COMPRESSIBILITY

,411 the results to be described in this section were obtained from tests on l&-in.-dia. samples and some discussion of the possible effects of sampling disturbance on the test results ought to be given. For the decomposed granite it has been shown (Lumb, 1962(b)) that driving l&in.-dia. sample tubes does cause an increase in voids ratio, particularly for dense soils. For the finer decomposed rhyolite and red earth no comparative tests have been done but probably the sampling disturbance is small except for very dense samples. On extruding samples of very dense unsaturated decomposed granite or decomposed rhyolite it is occasionally found that the samples have shattered into a series of disks during the driving of the sample tubes. Compressibility or strength tests on these badly disturbed samples would of course be completely unrepresentative of the soil in its natural state and no such results are used here. For intact samples, however, it is tentatively proposed that the test results are generally representative of the properties of the soil in situ except that for dense soils the measured compressibility may be higher and the measured strength lower than the true values. Since the soils are comparatively coarse-grained, essentially sands or silts, any excess porewater pressures induced by increases in stress should dissipate fairly quickly, particularly in the case of unsaturated soils, and consequently fully drained tests ought to be the most suitable for measuring the soil strength. This is confirmed by consolidation tests carried out on samples in the triaxial cell in which the rates of volume change under an all-round hydrostatic pressure CIwere measured. Fig. 5 gives the results of these tests in the form of d&l, against S,, where di is the volumetric strain occurring immediately after application of the all-round pressure For degrees of saturaand A, the final volumetric strain on completion of the consolidation. tion less than 70% the greater part of the compression occurs immediately and the remainder takes place very rapidly, as is shown by the values of the coefficient of consolidation c, given in Fig. 6. The samples tested were all 3 in. high and 14 in. in diameter and with this size of specimen the largest value of c, that can be measured accurately is 200 sq. cm/min. From Fig. 6 it will be seen that about one-third of the samples had a c, value greater than this upper limit.

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189

II-hen the degree of saturation is greater than about 90:/, the immediate volume change is small and the coefficient of consolidation of the red earth and decomposed rhyolite is also relatively small, less than about 1 sq. cm/min. These results show that although the fully drained strength test should be used for the decomposed granite and unsaturated red earth and decomposed rhyolite, undrained tests are more suitable for the saturated or nearly saturated red earth and decomposed rhyolite. Fully drained strength The drained triaxial tests carried out at the University of Hong Kong were all at a rate of strain slow enough to ensure at least 95% theoretical dissipation of pore-water pressure at failure. The results were found to be in good agreement with consolidated-undrained tests with pore-water pressure measurement expressed in terms of effective stresses carried out in the Plover Cove investigations, and in what follows the terms angle of shearing resistance + and cohesion c refer to both drained parameters & cd, and effective stress parameters +, c, without distinction. The means and standard deviations of tan 4 are given in Table 1, and Table 2 shows that there are significant differences between the three soil groups. The angle of shearing resistance would be expected to vary with initial voids ratio and grading, and possibly with degree of saturation, but Table 5 shows insignificant or low correlation. Previous tests on remoulded
Table 5

Correlation

between factors for drained strength parameters Md 0 0

H

tan 4 versus d.g. r.e. d.r. All samples

Dv L 0 0

Sk 0 0
Id

e, 0

S,

IO

DWSUS

Md 0 0

e, :

S, &

d.g. d.r.

samples of red earth (Lumb, 1962(b)) s h owed that the voids ratio had a great influence on 4 but the small number of undisturbed samples and the large scatter mask the effect here. There is significant correlation between tan 4 and Md for all soils considered as one group, as is shown in Fig. 7, but for all practical purposes the values of tan 4 can be regarded as quite random with the means and standard deviations of Table 1. The cohesion is strongly affected by the degree of saturation, as is shown in Fig. 8 and Table 5 for decomposed granite and decomposed rhyolite. The initial voids ratio also has an influence on the decomposed granite, for which mean lines for loose, medium, and dense states are shown in Fig. 8, but not on the decomposed rhyolite. The effect of grading is statistically insignificant for both soils, any effect being obscured by the large effect of degree of saturation. When fully saturated the cohesion drops to zero and the soils behave as purely frictional materials, but when unsaturated the cohesion can be as high as 4500 lb/sq. ft. The decomposed rhyolite is extremely sensitive to changes in degree of saturation, an increase of 10%
3

190

PETER

LUMB

0.2

-2.0

-I..5

-1.0 Md

-0.5

+o.s

Fig. 7.

Drained angle of shearing resistance

against median

$000

27 .A
..

g22occ i I uo 1000

I 0.5

e.

I I-0

(a)

(b) Fig. 9. Axial strain at failure against initial voids ratio

Fig. 8. Drained cohesion against degree of saturation (a) decomposed granite, (b) decomposed rhyolite

in So producing a drop of about 1500 lb/sq. ft in cohesion. The red earth has a range in cohesion of the same order as the decomposed rhyolite, but the results are not shown in Fig. 8. The failure strains E*are shown in Fig. 9, plotted against initial voids ratio. The influence of degree of saturation is not significant and that of grading is slight, the decomposed rhyolite failing at rather smaller strains than the decomposed granite or red earth.
Undrained strength

As mentioned earlier the strength of the decomposed rhyohte and red earth when completely or almost saturated might best be characterized by the undrained parameters +Uand c,.

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191

?ig. 10. Undrained cohesion against dry density for decomposed rhgolite

e.
Fig. 11.
Compressibility against initial voids ratio for decomposed granite

e, = 0.5 2000.

T
T

5360

/ 1 / 0 ISoo . i 7 :: >I000 J Y $00. e,=o+s

0
0

( 0 / / ./

#Leo=o.7 -I

20

40
LB/SQ.lN. (aI

60

20 04

40 LB/SUN. (b)

60

U+

Fig.

12.

Total

bulk

modulus

against final hydrostatic pressure, (b) decomposed rhyolite

(a)

decomposed

granite,

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LUMB

A series of undrained triaxial compression tests on decomposed rhyolite of degree of saturation 80 to 1000/b showed that in general the apparent angle of shearing resistance is small, and out of 82 tests the following values of 4, were obtained: 4 (degrees)
Number

0
60

5 4

10 5

15 4

20 6

25 1

30 1

35 0

40 1

There is no significant correlation between 4, and e, or S,. For the samples with zero angle of shearing resistance the cohesion varied considerably, from about 400 to 5800 lb/sq. ft, and the best correlation was that shown in Fig. 10 between c, and the dry density yd. Although no results are presented for the red earth the values of & and c,, are of the same order as for the decomposed rhyolite.

Fig. 13. strain

Stress and volumetric against axial strain

ComPressibility

and stress-strain relationship

In the drained compression tests the measurements of volume change during consolidation are shown in Fig. 11 for the decomposed granite in the form of Aflu,, where A, is the total volumetric strain occurring after increasing the all-round pressure from zero to uf only. The values of AJq are strongly dependent on initial voids ratio and on the final pressure reached. These results are re-plotted in Fig. 12 in the form of total bulk modulus K = q/Of against final pressure for loose, medium, and dense decomposed granite, while for the decomposed rhyolite only the means and ranges of K are shown. The decomposed granite is more compressible than the decomposed rhyolite, and for both soils the total bulk modulus increases more or less linearly with increasing range of pressure. During the axial compression stage of the strength tests subsequent to consolidation, the readings of axial strain E and additional volumetric strain 6A at stresses (a, - us) enable the modulus of elasticity and Poissons ratio of the soils to be determined as follows (see Fig. 13). The secant incremental modulus of elasticity E, is calculated as E, = $(a, - qJf/& where 8~ is the increment in axial strain at one-half of the failure stress (ul -u&. If the increment in volumetric strain at this stress is SA, then the secant incremental Poissons ratio Ye is calculated as vQ = fr( 1 - SA/&). Figs 14 and 15 show the values of E, and vs for decomposed granite and decomposed rhyolite plotted against the consolidation pressure u3. The effect of initial voids ratio is also shown for the decomposed granite but only means and ranges are shown for the decomposed rhyolite.

I-HE RESIDUAL

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193

The secant modulus E, increases more or less linearly with increasing initial pressure C+ while vS generally decreases to a fairly constant value of about O-2 at high pressures. The influence of degree of saturation on K, E,, or ySis not marked. It is quite clear that the soils cannot be regarded as elastic materials with constant moduli. Since E, increases with (TV and hence with overburden pressure or depth, as a first approximation the soils could be considered to have a modulus of elasticity increasing linearly with depth and a constant Poissons ratio.

6000

6000

e,= ,400o. e,=os -k2000 1

0.5

+!!i

-e,=o.9 0 OI 20 63 LB/SQ.lN.

20 Oj LB/SQ.lN.

40

60

40

60

(4
Fig. 14. Secant modulus of elasticity against confining pressure, (b) decomposed rhyolite

(b)
(a) decomposed granite,

a3 LB/S&IN.

Fig. 15.

Secant Poissons ratio against confining pressure, (a) decomposed (b) decomposed granite, rhyolite

(9

e,=o.g

20

40

60

194

PETER

LUMB

CONCLUSIONS

The results presented here show that the residual soils of Hong Kong derived from igneous rocks fall into three groups having significantly different properties. The shape of the grading curve is sufficient to classify a soil as decomposed granite, red earth, or decomposed rhyolite. The soils have appreciable angles of shearing resistance when fully drained, the average angles being about 35 for the decomposed granite, 28 for the red earth, and 30 for the decomposed rhyolite. For individual samples the angle of shearing resistance can vary considerably from the average but the variations are statistically independent of voids ratio, grading, or degree of saturation, and can be considered as random variations. When unsaturated all soils have a large cohesive component of strength but on complete saturation the drained cohesion drops to zero or a very small value. This drop in strength is particularly noticeable with the decomposed rhyolite, and cuttings in these soils which are quite stable in the dry season often collapse during the rainy season after infiltration of rainwater and consequent softening. The compressibility of the soils is generally low, except for loose decomposed granite, and is not influenced to any great extent by the degree of saturation. The phenomenon of collapsing structure sometimes encountered when unsaturated soils become fully saturated does not occur with the Hong Kong soils. The soils cannot be regarded as linear elastic materials, the stress-strain relationship being strongly influenced by the confining pressure, but for small pressure increments the modulus of elasticity could be regarded as increasing linearly with depth below the surface.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements are gratefully made to the Research Grants Committee of the University of Hong Kong for financial assistance; to Dr G. C. Riley for the modal analyses of the fresh granite; and to the Director of Public Works, Hong Kong, Messrs Binnie & Partners, and Messrs Scott & Wilson, Kirkpatrick & Partners, for permission to quote the results of soil tests from the investigation at Plover Cove.
REFERENCES BERRY, L., 1957. Superficial deposits of the Hong Kong Harbour Area. Hong Kotzg Uxiv. Engsg J.. 21: 38-50. FANSHAWE, H., 1962. Soils in the Shck Pik Valley. Sym$osium on Hong Kong Soils, Hong Kong Joist Group of the Institutions of Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, pp. 53-56. LAMB, D. W., 1962. Decomposed granite as fill material with particular reference to earth dam construction. Symposium on Hong Kong Soils, pp. 57-71. LUMB, P., 1962(a). General nature of the soils of Hong Kong. Symposiun& on Hong Kong Soils, pp. 19-31. LUMB, P., 1962(b). The properties of decomposed granite. Gbotechnipe, 12:3:226-243. RUXTON, B. P., 1960. The geology of Hong Kong. Quart. Geol. Soc., London, 115:233-260. WILLIAMS, M. Y., R. W. BROCK, S. J. SCHOFIELD, and T. C. PHEMISTER, 1945. The physiography and igneous geology of Hong Kong and the New Territories. Tvans. Ro_Y.Sot., Canada (3) (IV), 37:91-119.