See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/274973546

Probability Distribution of Engineering Properties of Soil at Telecomunication

Sites in Indonesia

Article · March 2014

DOI: 10.12983/ijsrk-2014-p0143-0150

CITATIONS READS

0 388

3 authors:

Marelianda Al Dianty Ahmad Shukri Yahaya

Università degli Studi di Brescia Universiti Sains Malaysia
7 PUBLICATIONS   3 CITATIONS    81 PUBLICATIONS   612 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Fauziah Ahmad
Universiti Sains Malaysia
108 PUBLICATIONS   582 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Model tests of a reinforced unpaved road constructed over peaty clayey soil. View project

Variation of particulate matter (PM10) in Malaysia View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Marelianda Al Dianty on 25 April 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(3), pp. 143-150, 2014
Available online at http://www.ijsrpub.com/ijsrk
ISSN: 2322-4541; ©2014 IJSRPUB
http://dx.doi.org/10.12983/ijsrk-2014-p0143-0150

Full Length Research Paper

Probability Distribution of Engineering Properties of Soil at Telecomunication Sites

in Indonesia
Marelianda Al Dianty*, Ahmad Shukri Yahaya, Fauziah Ahmad

School of Civil Engineering, Univeristy Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysi
*Corresponding Author : mareliandaaldianty@gmail.com

Received 15 December 2013; Accepted 20 February 2014

Abstract. Engineering properties of soils, collected from different sites designated for the erection of telecommunication
towers, were obtained and analyzed. Probability distribution functions were fitted to this properties. Probability distribution
function were fitted to this properties to predict the incidences of their occurance.. Correlation analysis also carried out to
check for the relationships if any between the properties. A linear relationship was observed between plastic index and liquid
limit, saturated unit weight and angle of internal friction, saturated unit weight and dry unit weight, degree of saturation and
water content,saturated unit weight and cohesion, saturated unit weight and dry unit weight. The void ratio,bulk unit weight
and dry unit weight were found to follow normal distribution; water content, liquid limit and plasticity index followed the
gamma distribution; gravity specification, porosity, saturation, angle of internal friction and cohesion fitted weibull distribution
and saturated unit weight fitted log-normal distribution. The study also found that porosity and void ratio have high probability
of occurance at their threshold levels. This indicates an unfavorable condition for the soil at this sites

Keywords: Index properties, Plasticity properties, Strength properties, Probability distribution, Correlation.

1. INTRODUCTION while for deeper soils the corresponding distributions

The choice of foundation type and its geometry
depends to a large extent on the engineering properties
of the soil base. Engineering properties of soil are
fundamental aspect that, used in the analysis of site
condition and foundation of the structures of tower
telecommunication. A geotechnical investigation must
be conducted in order to obtain data about the site.
Geotechnical investigation includes field and
laboratory testing of both disturbed and undisturbed
soil samples. Because of the volume of work and the
accompanying cost involved in determining all the
engineering properties required before taking decision
on foundation design parameters, to minimize these,
it may be necessary to analyze probabilistically the
distribution of the engineering properties to help in
speedy judgment of the soil condition at a particular
site telecommunication before construction begin.
A distribution is selected based on how well it
represents a sample data set from the population, the
judgments of experts, the characteristics of the
underlying population, or some combination of these
factors (Frey and Rhodes, 1999). Popescu et al. (1998)
observed that the distribution of soil strength in
shallow layers were prevalently positively skewed,
tended to follow more symmetric distributions.
Corotis et al. (1975) carried out an investigation on
whether a number of properties of three groups of
soils could be described by normal or lognormal
distribution. Yahaya et al. (2007) choosing North
Penang in Malaysia as study cases, investigated the
distribution of SPT N-Values on residual soils. The
statistical distributions chosen were normal,
lognormal, weibull, rayleigh, exponential and gamma.
Weibull and gamma distributions were found to fit
well at some depths. Bower et al. (2012) carried out
probability distribution to get better reflect river flow
for wet and dry season. The result found that
lognormal distribution better than power law for wet
season. While, dry season was better if use lognormal
distribution and power law. Suchomel et al. (2011)
have used probabilistic distribution to solve
geotechnical problem , strip footing. Some soil
parameters followed normal, whereas other followed
lognormal distribution. This paper attempts to
determine the probability distribution of index
properties (e, Gs, Sr, n, Wc, γt, γsat, γd), plasticity
properties (LL, PL, PI) and strength properties (c and
Ø) at telecommunication network tower sites. The
geotechnical investigation was carried out to

143
 Al Dianty et al.
Probability Distribution of Engineering Properties of Soil at Telecomunication Sites in Indonesia
determine the physico-mechanical properties of the
soils.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1. Soil sampling process
The data were obtained from 73 telecommunication
sites at East Java province. East Java Province has a
total area of 46,428.57 km². It is the largest area in
Java Island with a population of more than 37,476,011
(2010 Census), making East Java provine the second
most populous in Indonesia. East Java Province lies
between longitudes 111° and 114°E and latitudes 7°
and 8°S. There are three step of soil sampling
processes at telecommunication sites. (1) site survey,
(2) field investigation, (3) laboratory testing.
The purpose of site survey is to find closet
candidates to nominal point at random sites. The
survey must bring a few tools such as GPS
compass,gauge and digital camera. GPS used to
determine position of latitude and longitude; compass
used to determine direction; gauge used to determine
dimension of site; Digital camera used to take pictures
around rented sites. Before go to the sites, it should be
make sure that bring radio network planning nominal
point created by software for the candidate sites. Next
step is choose the shortest distance from the provided
coordinate. It this process, must be consider the
environment of site, like main road elevation, access
road elevation, land to be rented elevation. It will
involve the additional cost and drainage plan.
Next step is field investigation process by hand
boring test. Boreholes shall be made to obtain
information about the subsoil profile, its nature and
strength and to collect soil samples for strata
identification and for conduction laboratory tests. The
soil test result is important to site design team and it
will influence the progress of site construction. One
point-boring were conducted to obtain disturbed and
undisturbed soil samples. Undisturb soil sampling
conducted at a depth of -1.00; -3.00 and - 5.00 meters
above the local ground by using the "Thin Walled
Tube Sampler" diameter 65 mm and length 50 cm.
Tests conducted on the collected disturbed samples
includes index properties test, while on collected
undisturbed samples, strength test was carried out.
Lastly, Laboratory Testing were conducted to obtain
accurancy the soil data. There are two (2) main job at
laboratory testing, which is to determine "Physical
144
Properties" and "Engineering Properties". The testing
were conducted such as specific gravity test, natural
moisture content, bulk density, dry density, saturation
index, atterberg limit, sieve and hydrometer, direct
shear, triaxial test and consolidation test.
2.2. Analysis Method
The methodology adopted in analyzing the results of
the laboratory test of the soil properties, involved the
use of bar-chart plots of the number of occurrences of
given parameters within a given values. To determine
the linear relationship between two parameters,
correlation analysis was employed. Four types of
distributions were used; normal, lognormal, weibull
and gamma. The distribution models are shown in
Tabel 1. The fitness of the distribution models were
assessed using Goodness-of-Fit test, such as the
Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K-S) and Chi-Square tests
(Ang and Tang, 1975; Baecher and Christian, 2003;
Fenton and Griffiths, 2008; Kim et al, 2012). Some of
the properties wete then predicted using the best-fit of
the selected distributions. Finally, the distributions for
selected parameters were the obtained.
In order to determine the best distribution, four
performance indicators were used as given by Eqs. (1)
to (5). The performance indicators comprised of (a)
error measures NAE and RMSE and (b) accuracy
measures IA, PA and R². The formulas were given
below:
NAE = (1)
RMSE = (2)
IA = 1- (3)
PA = (4)
R² = (5)
Where, and are predicted and observed
values respectively; and are predicted and
observes mean values respectively; and are
standard deviations of predicted and observed values
respectively, and N is the sample size.
 International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(3), pp. 143-150, 2014

Table 1: Model of probability distributions used

No Distribution Model

1 Normal

2 Lognormal

3 Gamma

4 Weibull

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS porosity and Gs around a the central or median value
with no bias to the left or right, while the histograms
The histogram of engineering properties were for values degree of saturation and saturated unit
presented in figure 1, 2 and 3. The distribution of weight shows two peaks values. Histograms of the
plasticity parameters shown in Figure 1. Those With values for porosity, unit weight and unit density
outlier on the right side, the histograms showed that spread to the right. Only histograms of values of water
the distributions are not symetric. The mean of values content showed normal distribution trend. The
of LL and PL are below median, implying a left histograms for the values shear stregth parameter in
skew.The plasticity index shows normal curve or figure 3, shows non normal distribution, the shape of
symmetric pattern. Histograms of the other index curves are skewed to the right side.
properties presented in figure 2, shows the values of

Histogram of all.depth.tfm$LL Histogram of all.depth.tfm$PL Histogram of all.depth.tfm$PI

12
7

10
6

10
8
5

8
4
Frequency

Frequency

Frequency
6

6
3

4
2

2
1
0

10 20 30 40 50 60 10 15 20 25 30 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

all.depth.tfm$LL all.depth.tfm$PL all.depth.tfm$PI

Fig. 1: Histogram of plasticity properties

145
 Al Dianty et al.
Probability Distribution of Engineering Properties of Soil at Telecomunication Sites in Indonesia

Histogram of all.depth.tfm$e Histogram of all.depth.tfm$Gs Histogram of all.depth.tfm$Sr Histogram of all.depth.tfm$Wc

14

15
7
10

10
8

10
Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency
4

8
6

6
4

5
2

4
2

2
0

0
0.5 1.0 1.5 0 10 20 30 40 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

all.depth.tfm$e all.depth.tfm$Gs all.depth.tfm$Sr all.depth.tfm$Wc

Histogram of all.depth.tfm$n Histogram of all.depth.tfm$yt Histogram of all.depth.tfm$ysat Histogram of all.depth.tfm$yd

25
10 15 20 25 30
25

15
20
20
Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency
15

10
15

10
10

5
5
5

5
0

0
10 20 30 40 50 60 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6

all.depth.tfm$n all.depth.tfm$yt all.depth.tfm$ysat all.depth.tfm$yd

Fig. 2: Histogram of index properties

Histogram of all.depth.tfm$O Histogram of all.depth.tfm$C

12

40
10

30
8
Frequency

Frequency
6

20
4

10
2
0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

all.depth.tfm$O all.depth.tfm$C

Fig. 3: Histogram of shear strength properties

The correlation matrices between soil engineering uzielli et al (2007). R2 value of 0.5574 for correlation
properties are shown in tabel 2. Strong relationship between cohesion and angle of internal friction
between plasticity index and liquid limit, measuring indicates moderate result.
0.8223, was observed, whereas γsat and recorded R2 Result of normality test by kolmogorov-smirnov is
value of 0.8003 R2 value of 0.73499 was recorded shown in table 3. Three engineering properties (void
between γsat and γd.; while Sr and Wc , γsat and c and ratio, bulk unit weight, dry unit weight) were
γsat and γd, recorded 0.744, 0.6717 and 0.6064 R2 considered for the test. The test recorded p-value of
values respectively. These results are to some extent, 0.200 ( > 0.05) for the three engineering properties.
in agreement with findings by Rétháti (1988) and

146
 International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(3), pp. 143-150, 2014

Tabel 2: Correlation between parameters of engineering properties

LL PL PI e GS Sr n Wc γt γsat γd Ø c
LL 1 0,4611 0,822 0 0,0908 0,0444 0,0417 0,2438 0,2355 -0,03 0,055 -0,0914 -0,14
PL 1 0,208 -0,1 -0,033 0,1592 -0,122 0,1546 0,1859 0,2278 0,201 0,2129 0,0865
PI 1 -0,1 0,1462 -0,06 -0,028 0,2049 0,2114 0,2583 0,156 0,046 -0,055
e 1 0,4898 0,2502 0,9235 0,2427 -0,507 -0,692 -0,834 -0,6625 -0,346
GS 1 -0,071 0,6242 -0,17 -0,264 -0,281 -0,185 -0,5293 -0,128
Sr 1 0,3012 0,744 0,3953 -0,289 -0,216 -0,199 0,0405
n 1 0,1658 -0,589 -0,708 -0,829 -0,7273 -0,386
Wc 1 0,0748 -0,078 -0,289 0,0759 -0,002
γt 1 0,414 0,606 0,3661 0,2117
γsat 1 0,735 0,8001 0,6718
γd 1 0,535 0,3955
Ø 1 0,5574
c 1

Tabel 3: Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) result

Engineering properties Kolmogorov-Smirnov Engineering properties Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Statistic Df Sig. Statistic Df Sig.
Void ratio (e) .049 197 .200* Dry unit weight (γd) .055 197 .200*
Porosity (n) .087 197 .001 Liquid Limit (LL) .102 182 .000
Specific Gravity (Gs) .282 197 .000 Plastic Limit (PL) .105 179 .000
Saturation (Sr) .147 167 .000 Plasticity Index (PI) .092 179 .001
Bulk unit weight (γt) .059 193 .200* Angle of shearing resistance (ϕ) .235 193 .000
Saturated unit weight (γsat) .239 196 .000 Cohesion (c) .392 190 .000

From table 4, it was observed that Wc, LL and PI
followed gamma distribution, Gs, n, Sr, Ø and c
followed Weibull distribution, while γsat and PI
followed log-normal distribution. From the best
distribution test, it was observed that the probability of
the LL exceeding the threshold (LL > 50) value, is
0.5435. The probability that PI values exceeds the
threshold (PI > 45) is 0.8575, while the probability of
Sr exceeding the threshold (Sr > 80) is 0.5792, of n
exceeding the threshold (n > 45) is 0.8575, of e
exceeding the threshold (e > 0.8) is 0.6424 and of γd
exceeding the threshold (γd > 2.2) is 0.1668.
In terms of fundamental part in determining
engineering behavior of the soil, Observation of the
results for plasticity index, saturation, void ratio,
porosity and dry density, showed that the distributions
of data fits well to the distributions models
considered. The values of coefficient of determination
of the correlation between the engineering properties
of the soils were found to be between 0.1681 and
0.9999. It should be noted that these observation
depends on the soil type, as stated by Lacasse and
Nadim (1996).
4. CONCLUSION
The study has proposed a set of probablility
distributions that can be used to predict soil conditions
and their charactheristics. This study found that
porosity (n) and void ratio (e) of the soils in the
studied sites, has high probability of occurance at their
threshold values (probability greater 0.5), while γd and
Sr has a medium probability of occurance at their
threshold values. This indicates that the soil
conditions at the investigated sites are unfavorable in
their natural state.

147
 Al Dianty et al.
Probability Distribution of Engineering Properties of Soil at Telecomunication Sites in Indonesia

Table 4: Probability distribution of engineering properties of the soils

Liquid Limit (LL) GS
Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R² Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R²
Weibull 0.5775 29.981 0.4198 0.9756 0.9414 Weibull 0.0164 0.0676 0.9395 0.9147 0.8281
Log-Normal 0.0343 24.306 0.9875 0.9802 0.9504 Log- 0.0337 0.1080 0.8887 0.8059 0.6430
Normal
Gamma 0.0309 0.732 0.9905 0.9826 0.9549 Gamma 0.0321 0.1025 0.8961 0.8148 0.6572
Plasticity Limit (PL) Water Content
Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R² Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R²
Weibull 0.0612 19.143 0.9569 0.9472 0.8871 Weibull 0.1716 106.453 0.9367 0.8813 0.7689
Log-Normal 0.0243 0.7841 0.9910 0.9825 0.9546 Log- 0.1716 106.453 0.9367 0.8813 0.7689
Normal
Gamma 0.0262 0.8375 0.9896 0.9796 0.9489 Gamma 0.0544 78.121 0.9592 0.9392 0.8731
Plasticity Index (PI) Porosity
Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R² Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R²
Weibull 0.0786 26.356 0.9791 0.9675 0.9255 Weibull 0.0153 13.456 0.9923 0.9862 0.9628
Log-Normal 0.0786 28.862 0.9777 0.9830 0.9556 Log- 0.0503 4.098 0.9431 0.9111 0.8218
Normal
Gamma 0.0549 17.287 0.9905 0.9849 0.9592 Gamma 0.0427 33.069 0.9603 0.9316 0.8592
Angle of internal friction (φ) Degree of Saturation
Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R² Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R²
Weibull 0.1931 23.908 0.9762 0.9544 0.9013 Weibull 0.0505 55.136 0.9608 0.9608 0.9260
Log-Normal 0.1754 62.388 0.8793 0.8215 0.6678 Log- 0.0503 64.014 0.9481 0.9046 0.8086
Normal
Gamma 0.1908 25.240 0.9721 0.9493 0.8917 Gamma 0.0491 58.380 0.9559 0.9172 0.8321
Cohesion (c) Saturated Unit weight
Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R² Distribution NAE RMSE IA PA R²
Weibull 0.5237 0.4149 0.8425 0.8843 0.7737 Weibull 0.0873 0.2136 0.8439 0.7970 0.6287
Log-Normal 0.4066 0.4196 0.8387 0.8814 0.7687 Log- 0.0422 0.1051 0.9381 0.8855 0.7761
Normal
Gamma 1..3855 0.4941 0.8766 0.8530 0.7031 Gamma 0.0458 0.1107 0.9331 0.8749 0.7577

REFERENCES Bowles JE (1982). Engineering Properties of Soil.

Ang AHS, Tang WH (1975). Probability concepts in
engineering planning and design. New York:
John Wiley & sons.
Anon (1979). Classification of rocks and soils for
engineering geological mapping. Part I: Rock
and soil material. Buletin International
Association Engineering Geology, 19: 364-71.
Ayyub BM (1998). Uncertainty modeling and
analysis. United States of America: CRC Press .
Baecher GB, Christian JT (2003). Reliability and
statistical in geotechnical engineering. John
Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester, pp. 177–203.
Bell FG (2000). Engineering properties of soils and
rocks. fouth edition. Blackwell Science Ltd.
Bowers MC, Tung WW, Gao JB (2012). On the
distributions of seasonal river flows :
Lognornomal or power law?. Water Research
Journal, 48: W05536.
148
Vol.2. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Corotis RB, Azzouz AS, Krizek RJ (1975). Statistical
evaluation of soil index properties and
constrained modulus. In E. Schultze (ed.)
Proceedings of the 2nd International
Conference on Applications of Statistics and
Probability in Soil and Structural Engineering,
Aachen, September 15–18, 1975: 273–294.
Essen: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erd- und
Grundbau.
Fauziah A, Ahmad SY, Farooqi MA (2007).
Distribution of SPT N-values on residual soil
for North Penang Pluton, Malaysia. World
Engineering Congress
Fenton GA, Griffiths DV (2008). Risk assessment in
geotechnical engineering. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, pp. 161–201.
Frey and Rhodes (1999). Quantitative analysis of
variability and uncertainty in environmental
data and model. Water Resources and
 International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(3), pp. 143-150, 2014
Environmental Engineering Program
Department of Civil Engineering. Vol. 1.
Hahn GJ, Shapiro SS (1967). Statistical Models in
Engineering”. John Wiley and Sons: New York.
Kim D, Kim KS, Ko S, Choi Y, Lee W (2012).
Assesment of geotechnical variability of
Songdo silty clay. Engineering Geology,
pp.133–134.
Kuncicky DC (2004). Matlab programming. United
States of America: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Lacasse S, Nadim F (1996). Uncertainties in
characterising soil properties. In C.D.
Shackleford, P.P. Nelson and M.J.S. Roth
(eds.), Uncertainty in the Geologic
Environment: From Theory to Practice,
Geotechnical Special Publication ASCE, 58(2):
49–75.
Rétháti L (1988). Probabilistic solutions in
geotechnics. NewYork: Elsevier
149
Sofyan Y, Heri K (2009). SPSS complete: Teknik
analysis statistik terlengkap. Jakarta: Salemba
Infotek.
Suchomel R, And masin D (2001). Probabilistic
analyses of a strip footing on horizontally
stratified sandy deposit using advanced
constitutive model. Computers and
Geotechnics, pp 363–374.
Uzielli M, Lacasse S, Nadim F, Phoon KK (2006).
Soil variability analysis for geotechnical
practice. In Tan TS, Phoon KK, Hight DW,
Leroueil S (2006) eds., Proceedings of the 2nd
InternationalWorkshop on Characterisation and
Engineering Properties of Natural Soils,
Singapore, November 29–December 1, 2006.
The Netherlands:Taylor & Francis.
Yahaya AS, Ahmed A, Gabda D, Su C (2007).
Problem and solution in statistics for engineers
and scientist. Prentice Hall. Pearson Malaysia
Sdn. Bhd.
 Al Dianty et al.
Probability Distribution of Engineering Properties of Soil at Telecomunication Sites in Indonesia

Marelianda Al Dianty is a Ph.D candidate in geotechnical engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia. She
obtained her Master degree in Science and Technology from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She
received her degree in Civil Engineering from Universitas Tarumanegara, Jakarta in Indonesia. She has
been been a part time lecturer of statistics for two years. Her professional experience started as a Project
Manager with Korean IT Company at Jakarta and she has completed her internship from Petronas during
her Master degree. Her last career was as a Project Quality Manager around 3 years at a
telecommunication company, Huawei.

Asscociate Professor Ahmad Shukri Yahaya obtained his first degree from University of Nottingham,
England in Mathematics. He pursued his Master degree in Industrial Mathematics at University of Aston
in Birmingham, England. He has published numerous books and papers at national and international
levels. He has also conducted consultancy works and seminars at national and international level.

Professor Dr Fauziah Ahmad is a geotechnical professor at Univeristi Sains Malaysia. She obtained her
Bachelor in Civil Engineering at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK in 1985. She continued her
doctorate degree without pursuing the Master degree at the same university. She is a member of the
geotechnical council and an editorial board member. She has received many awards and medals at
various exhibitions in the world especially for slope protection and soil erosion. Currently, Prof Fauziah
is deputy dean in IPS (Institute Postgraduate Studies) of Universiti Sains Malaysia.

150

View publication stats