Investigations into engineering characteristics and inherent variability in bituminous sand

Abstract

Bituminous sand is an important geomaterial due to its numerous engineering applications and great economic potentials. The occurrence is diverse in nature and therefore, it is very crucial to study the engineering behaviour and understand the inherent variability in the engineering parameters needed in exploitation, design and construction in and/or on them. This study presents laboratory investigations into the engineering behaviour and the inherent variability in bituminous sand considering index, physical, fabric and geochemistry, mineralogy, oedometer and strength characteristics on the samples in the intact and reconstituted states. The findings can be summarised as follows: (1) The gradings are characterised by different particle sizes and hence, the bituminous sands are well-graded, (2) The fabrics are heterogeneous and isotropic and composed majorly of bituminous materials coated particles aggregation to clusters with inter- and intra- particle/cluster voids, (3) Silica and quartz dominate the composition and mineralogy with other elements and minerals in lesser proportions, (4) Bituminous sands have convergent behaviour and the compressibility is dependent of fines content, (5) Intact behaviour shows the presence of significant structure and (6) The inherent variability is high in some engineering grading descriptors, clay mineral, yield stress and strength, and low in the fines content, quartz mineral, compressibility and in situ specific volume and (7) Depending on the properties needed by the practitioners, interpolation and extrapolation from one point/location to the other could be made in these geomaterials.

Keywords

• bitumen
• engineering behavior
• fabric
• mineralogy
• variability