Effect of mineralogical content on strength and durability of weathered sedimentary outcrop from semanggol formation

The need of weak and weathered rock recognition and characterization should be emphasized to forecast the stability of rock slope. Engineering geologists and geological engineers might encounter the difficulties in practicing for the weak and weathered rock field due to the historical geological processes. Disintegration behavior of weak rock such as mudstone is observed via Slake Durability Test while strength behavior is observed via Uniaxial Compression Test in this study. Both strength and durability behaviors then been investigated further with the effect of mineralogical content using X-Ray Diffraction Test in all samples. Selected weathered sedimentary outcrop of Semanggol Formation from Bukit Kukus Kedah were characterized for disintegration, strength, and mineral properties. The result shows that the increasing of weathering grade has decreased the results on strength and durability of all samples. Furthermore, the mineralogical composition had impacted the higher values on slake durability index and compressive strength with the increasing of quartz content and decreasing of clay minerals.