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SOME MINERALOGICAL AND GEOTECHNICAL PROPERTIES OF CARBONATE

AND SILICA SANDS IN RELATION TO A NOVEL MIXED-IN-PLACE PILE

Conference Paper · March 2015

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 SOME MINERALOGICAL AND GEOTECHNICAL PROPERTIES OF
CARBONATE AND SILICA SANDS IN RELATION TO A NOVEL MIXED-IN-
PLACE PILE

G. Spagnoli, BAUER Maschinen GmbH, P. Doherty, D. Wu, M. Doherty, University

College Dublin

This paper was presented at the 12th Offshore Mediterranean Conference and Exhibition in Ravenna, Italy, March 25-27, 2015. It was
selected for presentation by OMC 2015 Programme Committee following review of information contained in the abstract submitted by
the author(s). The Paper as presented at OMC 2015 has not been reviewed by the Programme Committee.

ABSTRACT

Carbonate sands are encountered in several locations where offshore petroleum activities are
underway, in particular the Southern Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, Florida,
Brazil, India, the Philippines and Australia. Problems have been encountered in the Arabian Gulf
where driven piles were observed to free fall through carbonate sand. Further pile installation
difficulties were observed in Australia, Philippines and Brazil, due to the low skin friction developed
by the driven piles. In these soil types drilled-and-grouted piles are therefore preferred. The MIDOS
(MIxed Drilled Offshore Steel) pile is a new type of offshore pile, successfully installed in an
onshore field trial in silica sands. The feasibility of this pile in calcareous (or carbonate) sediments
was extensively conducted in a laboratory scale investigation, as part of a joint research project
between BAUER Maschinen GmbH and University College Dublin (UCD). Two tests materials
were used for this study: carbonate sand from Dog’s Bay beach and silica sand from Blessington
(both from Ireland). Preliminary mineralogical and geotechnical tests are shown in this manuscript.
XRD and SEM analysis have been performed to assess the materials from a chemical and
mineralogical point of view. XRD results revealed that the Dog’s Bay sand consists of at least 80%
calcium. Grain size distribution, void ratio measurement and direct shear tests for silica and
carbonate sands have been carried out. The basic geotechnical properties of the carbonate sand
from this study are compared in this paper with the geotechnical data available for other carbonate
sediments worldwide. The MIDOS pile is also briefly described as a novel offshore drilled-and-
grouted pile, which is developed specifically to cope with such challenging ground conditions.

INTRODUCTION

Carbonate (or calcareous) sands are typical encountered in areas such as Australia, Brazil,
Florida, Persian Gulf, Egypt, Puerto Rico and India, although areas do exist outside these limits,
notably the Bass Strait, Australia (Angemeer et al. (1)), and the western regions of the British Isles
(Scoffin (2)) or Ireland (Coop (3)). Pile capacity for carbonate sands is only about 1/3 of that of silica
sands. For piles subjected to tensile loading, the capacity for carbonate soils may be as low as 20
percent of that in silica sands based on the unit friction values (e.g. Datta et al. (4)). Common
properties observed for carbonate sand that are likely to be relevant to pile behaviour include
angular shape (Angemeer et al. (1)), high porosity and presence of calcitic shell fragments (Pestana
and Whittle (5)) and hollow grains (Demars (6)). The presence of calcium carbonate minerals makes
their grains softer than quartz of silica sand. The specific gravity, Gs, of carbonate sands is usually
higher than terrigenous soils, although this can be complicated by the presence of hollow grains.
Due to the difference in the nature of their particles, carbonate sands exhibit unique features as
compared to silicate sands. They have higher friction angle due to interlocking of the angular
bioclastic particles, than terrigenous solis (Horne and Deere (7); Semple (8)). Datta et al. (4). and
Golightly and Hyde (9) noticed that friction angle decreases at high stress. Shearing can cause

1
grain crushing and volumentric contraction. Datta et al. (10) suggested that this is due to particle
crushing. High initial void ratio is often cited and this is attributed to the angularity of particles and
the frequency of intraparticle voids (Angemeer et al. (1)). Carbonate sediments are more
compressible than terrigenous soils. Their compressibility results from grain crushing and the
collapse of grain-structures, therefore, volume changes are usually permanent. Several aspects
relevant to pile behaviour are evident or can be postulated:

 The skin friction resistance can be as low as 10% of the same piles in terrigeneous soils;
 The skin friction resistance of piles in cemented calcareous soils could potentially be less
than that in non-cemented carbonate soils;
 Pile-driving induced grain crushing increases with increasing cement content in the
carbonate soils;
 The observed low skin friction is indicative of the low effective lateral stress on the pile shaft
due to induced grain crushing which, in turn, causes soil contraction, i.e. the soils have a
tendency of moving away from the pile shaft thus reducing lateral stress. Arching of soils
around the pile shaft can also reduce the skin friction and grain crushing might reduce the
soil-steel friction;
 The static friction angles of carbonate sands are relatively higher than those of terrigeneous
sands prior to the occurrence of grain crushing. However, Noorany (11) found that no
change was evident in the friction angles and average soil-steel friction angles when testing
highly crushed or uncrushed calcareous sand. This illustrates an important aspect which is
consistently revealed in the previous literature i.e. the low skin friction of steel piles driven in
calcareous sands is caused by low effective soil-pile interface stresses rather than small
soil-pile friction angles;
 End bearing capacity for piles in carbonate sand is less than those in comparable
terrigeneous sediments.

Several geotechnical laboratory tests have been performed at the University College Dublin to
investigate the mechanical behaviour of the carbonate sands (from Dog’s Bay) and the silica sands
(from Blessington). To date driven piles have been used for installing offshore facilities more often
than drilled-and-grouted piles because of the successful experience. Nevertheless, drilled-and-
grouted piles have been used as foundation members for offshore structures (e.g. Young et al. (12)).
The problems of the conventional offshore drilled-and-grouted technologies are that they are time
consuming and there are several problems associated. The MIDOS (MIxed Drilled Offshore Steel)
pile, which is a novel drilled-and-grouted pile (Spagnoli et al. (13); Igoe et al. (14)) can be a valid
alternative. The present paper shows the preliminary results and the MIDOS pile is also briefly
described.

MINERALOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CARBONATE AND SILICA SANDS

Dog’s Bay sand is a carbonate sand already extensively tested in the past, e.g. Coop (3), Kwag et
al. (15), Golightly (16), White (17). The interest in Dog’s Bay sand was prompted by the problems of
low pile capacity encountered at the North Rankin offshore platform in Australia (King and Lodge
(18)
). The mineralogy of the Dog’s Bay sand samples used for this experimental work was
investigated by using the scanning electron microscopy. Also the sand’s average morphological
properties were studied. These properties could then be used to estimate the sand’s maximum and
minimum void ratios as well as its constant volume friction angle. A scanning electron microscope
(SEM) was used to obtain images of the sand particles. Three random samples were taken from
the sand specimen. The samples were mounted into the SEM on a carbon tab, see Fig. 1A and B.
Images of each sample were taken at different scales in order to get a good overview of the sand
matrix. Once the imaging was completed, 18 - 25 individual particles were isolated from each
sample. This gives a sufficient number of particles to obtain a good average of the morphology
properties of the sample.

2
 Fig 1: Scanning electron microscope A), carbon tab method of sampling B)

Each of these images of individual particles were then analysed using the Image-J software along
with the Particles_8 plugin. The average sphericity and roundness was then calculated for each
sample and overall averages of the sands shape parameters were obtained. The sands mineralogy
was obtained by using the SEM x-ray diffraction (XRD) feature. The XRD gives a spectrum of the
elements found in a specific part of a sample. From this spectrum, the mineral being scanned can
be determined. A number of XRD spectrums were taken from each sample to get a good overview
of the make-up of the sand. When viewing the particles under the SEM, the following defining
characteristics were noted. These characteristics are illustrated in Fig. 2 where a sample of the
images are shown: Large particles, zero visible fines, rounded edges, rectangular or oblong in
shape, mostly plate-like, white/cream in colour, some fully smooth particles but mostly pitted with
symmetrical patterns (but smooth otherwise) and some fossil-like particles.
The vast majority of SEM XRD spectra showed at least 80% calcium, with trace amounts of silicon,
sulphur, aluminium, sodium, chlorine, bromine, magnesium and iodine. A number of the spectra
showed 100% calcium. These results confirm that the sample is in fact calcareous sand. The
overall average roundness and sphericity and average regularity for the three samples give value
of 0.56, 0.48 and 0.52 respectively. Based on the roundness classification chart by Youd (19), the
sand is classed as “rounded” and described as “irregularly shaped particles with no distinct corners
or edges”. Several researchers have proposed correlations between particle shape parameters
and engineering properties, in particular, the constant volume friction angle and maximum and
minimum void ratios. Using these correlations and the calculated particle shape parameters for this
sand, an estimate of these properties was made. Tab. 1 gives the estimated constant volume
friction angle for this sand using correlations suggested by Santamarina and Cho (20) and Lehane
(21)
.

Tab. 1: Estimated constant volume friction angles

Correlation ϕ'cv Value

(20)
Santamarina and Cho 30.5°
Lehane (21) 32°

3
 Fig 2: Sample of images from SEM. A) Fossil-like particle; B) Rounded edges, some
smooth, some pitted particles, oblong and rectangular shapes; C) Zero visible fines,
mostly large particles; D) Symmetrical pitting in particles

Samples of calcareous sand were observed under a scanning electron microscope in order to
determine the particle shape characteristics as well as the mineralogical make-up of the sand. It
was found that the sand consists of particles which range from rectangular to platy in shape. They
are mostly smooth in texture but most have symmetrical pitting over the particle surface. The
corners are mostly rounded in shape. SEM XRD analysis confirmed that the sands mineralogy is
dominated by calcium, confirming that the sand is indeed calcareous. The calculated values of
roundness classify the sand as “rounded”. Correlations between roundness and constant volume
friction angle suggest a value of 30.5° or 32° depending on the correlation used. Correlations by
Youd (19) for emax and emin give estimates of 0.83 and 0.51 respectively for this sand based on the
average roundness of the particles. The obtained result values are quite low. These estimations
were further investigated in the lab using the relevant tests.
Table 3 shows a comparison of some geotechnical parameters of published data on carbonate
sands worldwide. As silica sand, the Blessington sand was used. Over the past ten years, the
geotechnical research group at University College Dublin have developed a field testing facility at
Blessington, County Wicklow (Ireland). This test site was developed to accommodate a series of
research projects, which investigated aspects of foundation behaviour including axial pile
behaviour, lateral pile resistance, cyclic loading response, eccentric loading and pile ageing. This
test site was chosen because of the consistent nature of the sand deposits and the similarity of the
strength and stiffness properties of the sand to those encountered in offshore seabed deposits in
the North Sea. The observed samples showed a mixture of larger particles surrounded by smaller
particles, with the proportion of fine particles varying with depth.
The large particles appear to be highly fractured, making them very coarse. However, the edges of
the particles are still sharp rather than rounded. This means that the particles have a low sphericity
but a high level of roughness. The angularity of the particles is very high. These features are

4
illustrated in Fig. 3. At smaller scales, the particles tended to appear similar to larger particles
suggesting that they are particles of rock flour that had broken away from larger (parent) particles.
However, some samples contained plate-like particles of clay minerals, which were shown to be
kaolinite. For the most part, the sand grains were consistent with clean quartz sand as observed by
the conchoidal fracture patterns. This mineralogy was confirmed using X-ray diffraction analysis
(XRD), which showed that the majority of particles were composed of pure silica and could be
identified as quartz material (Doherty et al. (22)).

Fig 3: Clean edges on sand grain (left); Sand shows high angularity but low sphericity
(right)

This observation was also visible in the petrographic and SEM imagery. Particle size analysis was
undertaken by dry sieving where the percentage of fines is shown to vary from 4% to 13%. The
variation in fines content can be attributed to the mechanism by which the deposit formed – i.e. a
glacial delta complex. During periods of high flow rates, fewer fines were deposited to the lake bed,
and vice versa. SEM imagery and XRD analysis suggest that the fines are either calcium
(limestone rock flour) based or composed of pure silica (quartz), although some clay-like profiles
were observed. This also agrees with the petrographic analysis of the mineralogy of the samples
conducted by Doherty et al. (22). The variation in clay content was also apparent in the samples
taken from sonic coring, which showed large variations in cohesion.

PRELIMINARY GEOTECHNICAL LABORATORY RESULTS

Several shear tests have been performed on the carbonate and silica sands. The preliminary
geotechnical data are shown in Tab. 2. All tests have been performed according to ASTM
standards. The emax and emin values if compared with the values obtained by using the correlations
proposed by Santamarina and Cho (20) and Lehane (21) are slightly higher, but still low. To test the
crushability of the carbonate sand about 500g of the material was mixed with 10% water (in order
to prevent fine dispersion) and then crushed with a jackhammer for 15 minutes The results
presented in Fig. 4 show how barely no change is visible for the silica sand, whereas the carbonate
sand curves has a shift towards the fine content. The fine sand content (i.e. between 0.06 and
0.2mm) before the crushing was 1%. After the crushing it reached a value of 30%. Prior the
crushing the coefficient of curvature and uniformity of the carbonate sand, Cc and Cu respectively,
were 1 and 1.61, whereas for the silica sand 0.93 and 3.06. After the crushing the Cc and Cu
remain practically the same for the silica sand, however for the carbonate sand Cc and Cu
changed to 1.18 and 3.16 respectively.
Particle size distributions according to ASTM D 422 have been performed on both sand types.
Besides, tests on deliberately crushed calcareous and silica sands have been performed. The
results are show in Fig. 4. A comparison of the simplest geotechnical parameter, i.e. max void

5
ratio, emax, min void ratio, emin, specific gravity, Gs, and mass median diameter, D50, has been
performed with some literature values published for other carbonate sands worldwide (Tab. 3).

Tab. 2: Physical properties of the sand investigated in this study

Parameter Carbonate sand Silica sand

Void ratio (e) at saturation 0.69 0.56
conditions
Specific gravity, Gs 2.70 2.67
Water content at saturation 25% 21%
conditions
Max void ratio, emax 1.10 0.91
Min void ratio, emin 0.84 0.57
D50 (mm) 0.38 0.16
Cc (Coefficient of Curvature) 1.01 0.93
Cu (Coefficient of Uniformity) 1.60 3.01
Friction angle (peak) 44.5° 44.6°
Friction angle (constant) 34° 38.8°

The black bars refer to the values where emax, emin, Gs and D50 of the investigated carbonate sand
fall (Fig. 5). The results show that the Dog’s Bay sand of this experimental program is very similar
to other carbonate sands worldwide.

Fig 4: Particle size distribution for silica (blue colour) and calcareous sand (red colour)
before and after crushing

6
 Tab. 3: Comparison of some geotechnical properties of carbonate sands worldwide

Resource emax emin Gs D50 Region

(16) (17)
Golightly , White 1.87 0.98 2.75 0.44 Dog’s Bay
Yasufuku and Hyde (24) 2.45 1.62 2.72 0.22 Dog’s Bay
Klotz (25) 1.84 1.37 2.71 0.20 Dog’s Bay
Donohue et al. (26) 1.86 1.17 2.71 0.20 Dog’s Bay
Evans (27) 1.70 1.34 2.60 0.20 Dog’s Bay
Mayne (28) 1.83 0.98 2.75 0.25 Dog’s Bay
Coop (3); Qadimi (29) 1.84 1.37 2.71 0.20 Dog’s Bay
Nutt (30) 2.46 0.79 2.75 0.25 Dog’s Bay
Kwag et al. (15) 1.72 1.08 2.71 0.42 Dog’s Bay
This study 1.10 0.84 2.70 0.38 Dog’s Bay
Morioka and Nicholson (31) 1.48 1.12 2.75 n.a. Australia
Kaggwa et al. (32) 0.79 0.73 2.72 n.a. Australia
Hull et al. (33) 1.13 0.54 2.73 n.a. Australia
Colliat et al. (34) 1.67 1.01 n.a. 0.17 Australia
Lu et al. (35) 1.41 0.92 2.75 0.41 China
Wang et al. (36) 1.41 0.77 2.76 n.a. China
Salem et al. (37) 1.04 0.75 2.79 0.20 Egypt
Abdeltawab et al. (38) 1.25 0.65 2.73 n.a. Egypt
Salehzadeh et al. (39) 1.47 0.83 2.72 0.22 England
McCarel and Beard (40) 2.00 1.40 2.72 0.40 Florida
Pizzimenti (41) 1.60 1.00 2.71-2.86 n.a. Florida
Kwag et al. (15) 1.30 0.78 2.69 0.58 France
Colliat et al. (34) 1.55 0.91 n.a. 0.65 France
Morioka and Nicholson (31) 1.36 1.12 2.80 n.a. Guam
Brandes and Seidman (42) 0.81 0.77 2.80 n.a. Hawaii
Brandes and Seidman (42) 0.83 0.81 2.76 n.a. Hawaii
Brandes and Seidman (42) 0.83 0.79 2.75 n.a. Hawaii
Morioka and Nicholson (31) 1.69 1.12 2.79 n.a. Hawaii
Morioka and Nicholson (31) 1.30 0.66 2.72 n.a. Hawaii
Golightly (16) 1.07 0.75 2.80 0.32 India
Morioka and Nicholson (31) 1.39 0.77 2.79-2.81 n.a. India
Golightly (16) 1.98 1.62 2.72 1.45 Ireland*
Shahnazari and Rezvani (43) 0.91 0.63 2.76 0.78 Persian Gulf
Shahnazari and Rezvani (43) 1.05 0.73 2.71 0.43 Persian Gulf
Hassanlourad et al. (44) 0.72 0.51 2.69 0.51 Persian Gulf
Hassanlourad et al. (44) 0.98 0.64 2.70 0.51 Persian Gulf
Hassanlourad et al. (44) 1.01 0.73 2.69 0.44 Persian Gulf
Dehnavi et al. (45) 0.84 0.81 2.76 0.75 Persian Gulf
Pando et al. (46) 1.71 1.34 2.86 0.38 Puerto Rico
Cataño Arango (47) 1.71 1.34 2.86 n.a. Puerto Rico
LaVielle (48) 1.22 0.80 2.75 n.a. Puerto Rico

7
Fig 5: Frequency distribution for Gs (A), emax (B), emin (C) and D50 (D) for different carbonate
sands compared with the carbonate sand investigated in this research. The black bars
refer to the values where Gs, emax, emin and D50 of the investigated carbonate sand fall

Soil-soil, soil-steel, soil-grout and grout-steel interfaces have been investigated. However, this
manuscript shows only the soil-soil direct shear test results. The tests have been performed
according to the ASTM D 3080. Because of the space limitations only a selection of the preliminary
results can be presented in this paper. The soil-soil interface was tested in saturated conditions
with a shear rate of 0.3 mm/min. This value has been chosen in order not to increase the pore
pressure, which would have disturbed the interpretation of the data. Lambe (23) suggested even
higher shear rate values for direct shear tests in sand, i.e. 1.2 mm/min, which confirms that no pore
pressure was generated. Preliminary results on soil-soil shear tests indicate that the friction angle
of the carbonate sands is the same as for silica sand. Tests on silica sand, non-crushed and
crushed calcareous sands were performed (Fig. 6). Max. friction angle, Φ, for silica and non-
crushed carbonate sands were 44°, which means that the carbonate sands behave at least at low
stresses like a terrigeneous sediment. Interesting is however the strong increase in max friction
angle for the crushed carbonate sand, i.e. 49°.

THE MIDOS PILE

The MIDOS pile system is an in-situ grouted pile developed by BAUER with an internal steel
casing that is created using drill bit (Fig. 7). The equipment for installing the MIDOS foundations
has been based on the Bauer Dive Drill technology (Spagnoli et al. (49)). The finished pile consists
of a grouted shaft, which is created using a tool which mixes the in-situ soil with a cement grout
(Spagnoli et al. (13); Igoe et al. (14)). The general features of the MIDOS drilling tool include an
excavation chamber with a diameter slightly larger than the casing diameter, which is mounted at
the toe of the casing. The installation unit will transmit the torque to the mixing tool by extendible
rods. One or two rotary drives are clamped inside of the top area of the casing.

8
 Fig 6: Direct shear tests on silica sand, non-crushed and crushed carbonate sand

A mixing tool is positioned at the bottom end of a vertical drive shaft and rotated by the top rotary
drive. Specially designed cement slurry exits the mixing tool, so that the loosened soil is
immediately mixed with this slurry to a soil-cement-mixture. When reaching the final depth, the
rotary drives with the shaft and the mixing tool are extracted, while the casing and the starter piece
remain in place. The soil is mixed in the excavation chamber while simultaneously pushing the
casing into the soil. During the installation of the pile, the soil-grout mixture flows through the
openings placed in the casing and passes throughout the annulus created by the difference in
diameters between the excavation chamber and the steel pile. A MIDOS piles field trial was
completed using a Bauer BG 42 drilling rig commonly used for creating standard bored piles. The
field trials were carried out to verify the suitability of the installation procedure and load carrying
performance of the MIDOS pile. The field tests involved the installation and load testing of a large
scale test pile in a fine sand deposit in Aresing, near Schrobenhausen, Southern Germany. The
installation records show similar drilling rates to onshore bored piles and indicate no conceptual
challenges with the proposed installation methodology. Design calculations for traditional drilled
and grouted piles, were used to estimate the pile capacity and were compared to the measured
results. The pile ultimate tension capacity was of 9,300 kN.

Fig 7: The MIDOS casing and the installation machine (left); the trial tests of MIDOS in silica
sand performed with a drill rig BG 42(right) (courtesy of BAUER Group)

9
CONCLUSIONS

An experimental investigation into the material behaviour of a calcareous sand was described,
which included classification tests, scan electron imagery, particle size analysis and shear tests
(soil-soil). This sand was shown to have a high crushability, which would lead to radial effective
stress reductions during shearing. As a result, traditional driven piles installed in calcareous
material have a low shaft shear stress and are not deemed technically or economically suitable.
The MIDOS pile was presented as a novel alternative foundation concept, which is developed
specifically to cope with such challenging ground conditions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to express their thanks to BAUER Maschinen GmbH for granting them
permission to publish these preliminary results. The authors also wish to express their gratitude to
Ms. Lisa Kirwan for undertaking the SEM imagery.

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