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Some instability problems were found on natural or engineered slopes mostly lying on Subang claystones. The instability problems included excessive erosion, slumps and rock falls. The field performance surveys of the problems suggested that the claystones physically weather rapidly so that the rock properties they exhibit during excavation often change to properties with a more characteristic of soil. Such a phenomenon is generally known as a slaking process. In order to gain better understanding about the slaking of Subang claystones, a series of experimental laboratory studies were carried out involving a modified slaking index test. Claystone samples used in this study were obtained from their exposures along the Northern West Java area of Indonesia. Petrographic analysis was correspondingly performed to identify mineral and texture/fabric, and in turn, to determine the inherent factors of the rocks which might affect the slaking process. The study results indicated that the claystones were characterized by high to very high slaking properties having a maximum slaking index (I s ) of 57.4% and a mean I s of 43.8%. Major dispersion slaking on sample surfaces and high cracking in response to excessive swelling were recognized as main slaking modes within the claystones. All samples lose progressively less material through the five wet-dry cycles of a slaking index test, indicating a decelerated slaking rate. It was evident that the main inherent factors controlling the slaking process were expandable clay mineral smectite, non-clay mineral pyrite and soluble mineral calcite. Moreover, a quite important of inherent bonding material and stress release energy in the slaking characteristics of the claystones was revealed by a closure phase of an initial hairline crack during unloading.

Highly pure aluminum was anodized at a constant current density of 25Am−2 at 293 Kin 0.5 M boric acid/0, 0.005, or 0.05 M sodium tetraborate solutions, to examine the effect of sodium tetraborate concentration on the formation and breakdown characteristics of barrier oxide films by using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, electroluminescence/photoluminescence measurements, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. In boric acid/borate solutions, a crystalline alumina formed locally in the middle of the amorphous oxide film. Above the crystalline alumina, a void is formed and may lead to a breakdown of the oxide film at 420 to 540 V. In boric acid solution, an amorphous oxide film grew until 1180 V with the formation and development of imperfections and with enhancement of electroluminescence and gas evolution. At imperfections, the oxide/solution interface was convex and the oxide/metal interface curved in the opposite direction. This deformation is attributed to high‐pressure O2 evolved in the pores of imperfections and to the local formation and dissolution of oxide. The breakdown of the oxide film started when the O2 evolution and oxide dissolution at imperfections become predominant. The mechanism of formation and breakdown of the anodic film in the boric acid/borate solutions is discussed in terms of pH buffering of the anodizing solution, and the electronic structure of anodic oxide films is correlated with electroluminescence and photoluminescence spectrum results.

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