Laboratory investigation of strain properties on peat from Rzeszów area

Abstract

Laboratory tests of strain properties on a selected peat from Rzeszow. Sampling methods for soil of undisturbed structure and methodology of oedometric tests. These tests were carried out under procedures set by Polish standards, using for this purpose a set of oedometers with an automatic system of data acquisition GEOLAB. The oedometric tests conducted on peat samples in a possibly wide range permitted, on the basis of obtained average values, to develop curves of: primary loading, unloading and reloading. These curves show strain properties of the tested soil under an applied load. The specific values of oedometric moduli of primary loading, unloading and reloading obtained from own tests were subjected to an elementary statistical analysis. Due to a potential heterogeneity of the tested peat, the values of coefficients of variation were also determined with regard to a specific range of vertical stresses. While analysing tests results, it was noticed that the deformation of peat, exposed to a load that causes the highest primary loading, makes up to 40% against the primary height of the sample. After an unloading process was carried out according to standard guidelines and after the reloading process with identical loads took place, it turned out that an average deformation caused by the highest secondary stress increase not exceed 3% of primary strains. A conclusion can be drawn that if there is a need for improvement of this type of soil for construction purposes, they must undergo consolidation.

Preliminary investigations of organics soil in a new calibration chamber with the use of the FVT and DPL probe

“…In Polish conditions, depending on the type of organic soil and its leading parameters, the value of the correction factor is usually taken in the range from 0.45 to 0.80 [16]. It wasn't the subject of this article and that is why, here the correction factor assumed equals 1.0, therefore c fu is the same as be c vf .…”