Non-quantitative correlation of soil resistivity with some soil parameters

This research was aimed at determining the correlation of electrical resistivity with soil parameters to implement a quick method of establishing factor of safety (FOS) in slope. In general, this project objective is to replace conventional soil parameters such as cohesion, angle of friction, saturated unit weight and etc with electrical parameters such as resistivity, conductivity, voltage and current. This paper however is limited to finding crude correlation of electrical resistivity parameters and soil parameters. As for preliminary stage, a number of experiments is conducted at failed slope and flat ground involving Wenner simple resistivity method, direct shear box test, moisture content and particle size distribution (PSD) to obtain preliminary correlation between electrical resistivity and soil parameters. In the second stage experiment, the effects of electrical resistivity with variation in compaction degree were then monitored. Results from both stages indicate that they were consistencies in the correlation between the resistivity and soil properties. This study is expected to reduce tedious work in the laboratory and cost which will eventually ease future generation by utilizing the electrical resistivity method. This finding is a part of a much extensive study which is eventually aim to develop an empirical formula in determining slope FOS using electrical parameters only.