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The Effect of Mineralogical Composition on Strength and Drillability of

Granitic Rocks in Hulu Langat, Selangor Malaysia

Article in Geotechnical and Geological Engineering · December 2019

DOI: 10.1007/s10706-019-00995-x

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Geotech Geol Eng
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-019-00995-x (0123456789().,-volV)
( 01234567
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ORIGINAL PAPER
The Effect of Mineralogical Composition on Strength
and Drillability of Granitic Rocks in Hulu Langat, Selangor
Malaysia
Nur Farhana Hassan . Onimisi A. Jimoh . Shaib Abdulazeez Shehu .
Zabidi Hareyani
Received: 18 June 2018 / Accepted: 26 June 2019
Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Abstract The strength characteristics of a rock is a
criterion for its ability to be drilled and fractured. The
uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is the most
commonly used strength index in construction indus-
try and in rock engineering projects. Therefore, a
comprehensive knowledge on the factors that could
influence the value of the compressive strength is
essential in any rock engineering project. This paper
explores the effects of mineralogical composition on
the UCS value of granitic rocks to evaluate its
drillability. Samples of granitic rocks were collected
from the Interstate Raw Water Transfer Tunnel
project. The rock samples were characterized with
quantitative Rietveld XRD method to quantify the
relative mineral phase compositions in the rock
samples. The relationships between mineralogical
properties and UCS were investigated by simple
regression analysis. The strength of the rock samples
increases with higher composition of quartz and
decreases with increase in the composition of feldspar
and kaolinite. The positive effects of quartz on the
strength of the granitic rock is more significant than
the negative influence of feldspar and clay content.
The drilling rate varies inversely with the UCS.
N. F. Hassan  O. A. Jimoh  S. A. Shehu 
Z. Hareyani (&)
School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal,
Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
e-mail: srhareyani.zabidi@usm.my
Keywords Drillability  Uniaxial compressive
strength  Mineralogy  Regression analysis  Quartz 
Kaolinite  Feldspar  Granitic
1 Introduction
The common procedures and methodology of obtain-
ing rock samples has been outlined in American
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifica-
tions. However, samples may not be representative of
the whole rock mass due to the structural deformation,
jointing and heterogeneity of most formations. Addi-
tionally, in situ tests are often not realistic or feasible
to carry out, and in any case, uncertainties concerning
them being representative of the rock mass always
persist (Marinos 2019). Several studies by Bubeck
et al. (2017), Marques et al. (2017) and Basu et al.
(2009) have indicated that mineralogical composition,
texture, and pore characteristics of rock are the
foremost factors that control the intensity of physical
disintegration. Furthermore, changes in microstruc-
ture lead to porosity and permeability variations, and
as a result rock mechanical properties change as well.
In likely areas of frost susceptibility, the porosity, pore
size, and degree of saturation all play important roles.
Relationships between physical properties and
mineralogical composition of numerous granitic rocks
have been previously probed. However, these links
were only based on their quartz content. Tuǧrul and
123

Zarif (1999) investigated the correlation analysis and
relationships between petrographical and engineering
properties of granitic rocks. They reported that the
influence of the textural characteristics on the engi-
neering properties of granitic rocks appears to be more
significant than the mineralogy. Furthermore, they
revealed that the mineral types, grain, shape and size
has a significant impact on the engineering properties
of the granitic rocks. Yesiloglu-Gultekin et al. (2013)
established a definite relationship between the quartz
content and the tensile strength of granitic rocks they
examined.
Irfan and Dearman (1978) established a quantita-
tive technique of assessing the degree of weathering of
granitic rocks in terms of its microscopic petrography.
Furthermore, they suggested a micro-petrographic
index as a percentage ratio of sound components to
unsound components. They established a good corre-
lation between the micro-petrographic index and the
geo-mechanical characteristics of granitic rocks.
Though the relationships between the petrograph-
ical characteristics and mechanical properties of
granitic rocks have been studied and reported by
different researchers: Arel and Tugrul (2001), Tandon
and Gupta (2013). The effect of mineralogical com-
position on strength and drillability on the engineering
properties of this granitic type of rock is not well
known. Therefore, determination of the mineralogical
content is one of the important aspects in order to
understand their relationship on the strength of rock. In
the early stage of engineering design, such determi-
nation is highly useful since they are cost effective and
would provide useful input in predicting the compres-
sive strength of specific rock types.
The purpose of this research is to enumerate the
relationships between the petrographic characteristics
and mechanical properties of selected granitic rocks
and to evaluate the variation of penetration rate
according to rock characteristics from Selangor area
of Malaysia, which have been widely used in tunnel
drilling, buildings or as ornamental stone. This
research take penetration rate (drillability) to be
drilled length per minute (m/min).
It has been found from several study by Ündül and
Er (2017), Yılmaz et al. (2017) and Sajid et al. (2016)
that feldspar content is the most important factor
affecting the mechanical properties of rocks. How-
ever, the individual mineral content should not be used
alone to predict strength of rock as there are other
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Geotech Geol Eng
effects that contribute on the results such as grain size,
frequency of micro-crack and the location of mineral
during testing. Thus, careful attention must be paid to
the dominant factor which controls the strength of
rocks.
2 Location and Site Description
There are number of engineering and development
projects like the construction of dams and tunnels
mainly for hydroelectric projects, cutting and widen-
ing of the roads etc. have been taking place in the
Titiwangsa Main Range granite. The Inter-state Raw
Water Transfer Tunnel (ISWRT) project is been
constructed in order to convey raw water from
Semantan River through a transfer tunnel to the
Selangor/Kuala Lumpur region for domestic and
industrial uses to mitigate future water shortage.
Figure 1 shows the map of water transfer plan from
Semantan Pipeline to the treatment plant at Selangor.
The ISRWT is designed to cross solid rock along the
alignment with the overburden ranges from just
several meters at each portal to more than one
thousand meters at the centre of the tunnel. Geology
of the alignment comprises of metasedimentary rock
at the northern end and granitic rock to the rest of the
tunnel. Therefore, the data on the mineralogical
compositions and mechanical properties of rocks
would be important to determine the strength of those
rocks during the tunnel construction.
The Inter-State Raw Water Transfer (ISRWT)
tunnel is planned to be 44.6 km in length, including
the inlet connecting basin, inlet conduit and outlet
conduit as illustrated in Fig. 1. There are two methods
of tunnel excavation which is Tunnel Boring Machine
(TBM) for 35 km and New Austria Tunneling Method
(NATM) for 10 km at the inlet and outlet of the tunnel.
The study area is located at the NATM-4 (Hulu
Langat, Selangor), mainly involves the coarse-grained
granitic body. These granitic formations are ideal for
tunneling because they are characteristically massive,
relatively ‘‘homogeneous’’ and competent. On the
other hand, restricted bands of highly weathered
materials associated with fault and shear zones or
hydrothermal veins and dykes can grant levitate to
some construction problems (Fig. 2).
Geotech Geol Eng

Fig. 1 The water transfer plan from Semantan Pipeline to the treatment plant at Selangor

Fig. 2 Geology of water transfer tunnel area. The cross section of ISRWT tunnel alignment, from Inlet basin (Karak) of
metasedimentary rock to outlet (Langat) of Titiwangsa Main Range Granite body (after KETTHA, 2000)

3 Field and Analytical Method
The construction of ISWRT tunnel provides an
opportunity to sample rocks along the horizontal
profiles. In this study, the fresh blasted outcrops were
consistently collected at 16 different tunnel distance
(TD) after blasting operation to study the intact rock
properties. Typically, at each TD, the samples col-
lected consist of block size 20 cm 9 30 cm for
mechanical analysis and hand samples size for exam-
ining their mineralogy. In order to examine the
relationship of rock mass properties on the drilling

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performance, the drilling rates at specific TD were
recorded during the drilling operation along the tunnel
alignment.
4 Laboratory Analysis
For detailed characterization of the rock samples, it is
essential to study the mineralogical composition and
compressive strength of the rocks. The techniques
used in the study are discussed below.
4.1 Mineralogical Analysis
The samples were prepared as finely ground homoge-
nous materials. They were crushed, and samplings
were carried out in order to prepare 16 representative
samples of rock obtained from Hulu Langat, Selangor
(NATM-4). The crushed samples were dried at 110 °C
for 24 h to constant weight. The samples were then
sieved to a diameter range of 63–75 lm for miner-
alogical characterizations.
X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was carried out to
clarify the mineralogy of the rock samples. The XRD
patterns are collected by a BRUKER powder diffrac-
tometer with Bragg–Brentano geometry equipped
with a curved graphite monochromator in the
diffracted beam arm using Cu Ka radiation
(k = 0.15406). The XRD patterns of the samples were
recorded within the range of 2h = 10°–90°, using a
step size of 0.034° and a counting time of 71.6 s/step.
Prior to analysis, all major and minor phases were
matched with good certainty using EVA software.
After all the phases were determined, the quantitative
phase analyzed by Rietveld analysis was carried out
using the HighScore Plus software.
4.2 Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS)
The test procedure was in accordance with the
methods suggested by the American Society for
Testing and Materials (ASTM 2005). The uniaxial
compressive strength test was performed on core
samples with lengths to diameter ratio of 2. The load
was continuously applied at a stress rate of 0.5 MPa/s.
It was observed that the failure always occurs within
5-10 min of applied stress. The tests were repeated
three times for each tunnel distance and the average
value recorded as the UCS.
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Geotech Geol Eng
5 Results and Discussion
Table 1 summarizes the results of mineralogical
analysis and mechanical testing. Quartz and feldspar
were the dominant minerals in all samples. Feldspar
can be expressed in terms of common minerals which
are plagioclase feldspar (albite) and potassium (K)-
feldspar or alkali feldspar (microcline). Both were
observed in the samples. Weathering of feldspar into
kaolinite was noted in all samples whereas muscovite
and biotite were present as accessory minerals.
Uniaxial compressive strength (rc) recorded ranges
from 26.32 to 48.25 MPa and the average penetration
rate range varies from 2.85 to 3.06 m/min.
To determine the influence of mineralogical com-
positions on mechanical properties, mineral contents
determined by the XRD analysis were correlated to the
rc values using regression analysis as shown in Fig. 3.
The figure shows that the compressive strength of rock
increases with quartz content with a strong correlation
coefficient (r2) of 0.86. Accordingly, the resistance to
drilling increases with quartz content. Such a trend is
consistent with the finding of Zorlu et al. 2008 that
established an increase in UCS with the increase of
quartz content in sandstone. However, UCS values
decrease as the compositions of feldspar and kaolinite
increase with correlation coefficients (r2) of 0.62 and
0.31, respectively.
The range of values obtained for the UCS
(26.32–48.25 MPa) is relatively low when compared
to average values of other granitic rocks. This low
strength value can be attributed to the high degree of
weathering of feldspar mineral as evident from
Table 2. Such conditions shows that rock strength
does not only depend on mineralogical composition
but also the degree of weathering of rocks. In
moderately weathered samples, feldspar still remains
the same as compared to highly weathered samples
where the rocks demonstrated greenish gray color.
These significant different in color indicates that the
weathering of feldspar to kaolinite associated with the
presence of chlorite had taken place during the
weathering process of granitic rocks. The occurrences
of altered feldspar had led to significant reduction in
UCS value due to reduction of structural bonds and
voids through weathering. This creates spaces within
the rock and thereby decreases the UCS. According to
Räisänen (2004), feldspar has a very important role in
strength reduction as the cleavage and microfissures in
Geotech Geol Eng

Table 1 Mineralogical composition and compressive strength of tested samples

Sample no. Mineral composition (%) Uniaxial compressive Average penetration
strength, rc (Mpa) rate (m/min)
Quartz Feldspar Kaolinite Accessory

TD 2008.11 24.2 67.7 8.1 0.1 30.47 2.98

TD 2010.51 27.5 64.8 6.5 1.2 38.24 2.94
TD 2014.10 33.9 55.8 6.2 0.6 42.73 2.93
TD 2015.30 27 66.4 6.6 – 34.94 2.99
TD 2018.90 22.7 65.1 15.5 0.9 26.32 3.06
TD 2041.20 28.9 55.9 7.9 4.4 40.12 2.95
TD 2046.20 26.9 61.9 11.1 0.1 39.43 2.93
TD 2053.70 28.1 64.8 4.3 4.1 39.06 2.94
TD 2058.70 23.9 64.8 10.5 2.3 30.55 3.02
TD 2061.20 27 67.7 4.5 3.9 32.94 2.99
TD 2068.70 24.5 63.8 10.5 3.8 32.11 3.01
TD 2071.19 28.4 62.4 4.2 1.8 37.67 2.98
TD 2073.69 25.3 64.7 8.6 1.4 36.05 2.97
TD 2075.19 29.3 55.7 13.5 1.4 40.87 2.89
TD 2081.21 34 52.3 1.8 0.1 48.25 2.85
TD 2086.20 30.7 50.2 4.5 – 41.97 2.93

feldspar is capable of reducing the compressive compared to rocks with higher compositions of
strength. feldspar and kaolinite. In evaluating the drillability
As shown in Fig. 3, UCS increases with quartz performance, the UCS values (rc) were correlated
content and decreases with feldspar and kaolinite. with average penetration rate as shown in Fig. 4 with a
Thus, a rock with higher quartz content has higher strong correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.88. It was found
strength values while kaolinite and feldspar reduce the that an increase in rc decreases the drillability
UCS values. The higher the UCS, the lower the (penetration rate). Tunnel excavation at NATM-4
drillability. Therefore, rocks with higher quartz con- were carried out by medium drilling velocity accord-
tent have lower drillability (penetration rate) when ing to classification made by Thuro (1997).

Fig. 3 Relationship 60
Uniaxial Compressive Strength (MPa)

between Unconfined σc = 1.5726Q - 6.4893

Compressive Strength R² = 0.8571
50
(UCS) and mineralogical
compositions of granitic
rocks 40

30 σc = -0.7815F + 85.048
σc = -0.8402K + 43.51 R² = 0.6214
R² = 0.3139
20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Mineralogical composition (%)
Quartz Feldspar Kaolinite

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 Geotech Geol Eng

Table 2 Weathering conditions of the tested rocks

Weathering state Surface structure of selected granite samples Descriptions

Moderately weathered Feldspar grains still

intact in the rocks
Quartz content = 27%
UCS = 59.85 MPa

Feldspar grains still

intact in the rocks
Quartz content = 22.7%
UCS = 43.66 MPa

Highly weathered Feldspar grains are

slightly altered
Quartz content = 26.9%
UCS = 23.34 Mpa

Feldspar are slightly

altered
Quartz content = 25.3%
UCS = 18.78 Mpa

6 Conclusion UCS ¼ 1:4329Q  0:2025 ð1Þ

Based on the results of this present study, the UCS ¼  0:8402K þ 43:51 ð2Þ
relationship between the mineralogical compositions
of the granitic rock and the compressive strength were UCS ¼  0:7815F þ 85:048 ð3Þ
determined as shown in Eqs. 1–3:

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Geotech Geol Eng
3.10
3.05 DR = -0.0086σc + 3.279
Drillability (m/min)
R² = 0.8778
3.00
2.95
2.90
2.85
2.80
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00
Uniaxial Compressive Strength (MPa)
Fig. 4 Relationship between average penetration rate and
unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of granite samples
where UCS = uniaxial compressive strength (MPa);
Q = Component of Quartz (%); K = Component of
Kaolinite (%); F = Component of Feldspar (%).
Also, the relationship between the drillability (DR)
and the UCS (rc ) was established as shown in Eq. 4:
DR ¼  0:0086rc þ 3:279
Mineralogical compositions and degree of weath-
ering of rocks are geological factors influencing the
strength properties and they may be used to predict
rock drillability in planning tunnel projects and other
applications. Rocks with low compressive strength
have higher drilling rate. Therefore, an early predic-
tion of the penetration rate is a necessary for cost
estimation and planning of tunneling and other
engineering design projects.
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