Have you performed a sand equivalent test? I think if you did a few it would help your understanding. For an even better understanding, try mixing the same percentages of kaolinite and bentonite into a clean sand, and see what happens to the results.
The sand reading is the height of the...
You might want to consider the methylene blue test on the fines. This is used by Quebec Ministry of Transport as a method of evaluating the overall specific surface of the fines, which is a pretty good way of determining the principal clay mineral.
It won't tell the clay percentage, per se...
Considering the precision of a Pocket Petrometer, I would consider 1 kg/ sq m sufficiently close to 100 kPa to be "close enough."
A more important error frequently encountered is to assume that the reading on the device is the undrained shear strength. It is supposed to be the unconfined...
Before using quicklime a la Handy try some simple lab tests first, just to see what sort of reaction you can get. I have tried this a few times and sometimes you won't get any reaction at all.
Not exactly sure of the reason, but it seemed that this has a lot to do with the nature of the...
Shales here (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) are expansive from pyritic alteration of limestone to gypsum. Greatest uplift pressure I have seen reported is 50 or 70 kPa, but this is only from recollection, and is typically only a problem under slabs on grade, or walls cast directly against it.
The...
A functional MSE wall can be constructed with no facing material at all, if you can accept some minor ravelling at the outward face.
The "footing" serves to do little more than make sure your facing units are lined up and levelled when you start. It's primarily aesthetic.
Decide if your wall is going to move or not, and in which direction, then remember these three things:
1. Active earth pressure is the lowest state of loading on the wall, when it has moved away from the backfill and all available soil strength has been mobilized.
2. Passive earth pressure is...
This could be. I have a 256 MB Radeon X1300PRO.
I used this same mouse on an older computer, with no similar problems, until about 2 or 3 months ago, with a Radeon 7000, I think.
I would like to suggest you call PTC support on this, but my experience with them is like something out of a...
Use the clay parameters given to draw an e-log P consolidation "curve" (will actually be two straight lines on semi-log plot).
Calculate your intial and final effective stesses in the clay.
Pick your final void ratio off the "curve", and calculate the change in volume.
Have been asked to look into a potential building site in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Does anyone have any information or leads/contacts for this area?
I am particularly interested in the availability of regional surficial geology information, the local capabilities of the geotechnical...
Have a look at J.K. White and T.O.L. Roberts; The significance of groundwater tidal fluctuations; in Groundwater problems in urban areas, Proceedings of the International Conference organized by the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 2-3 June 1993.
This may not provide the answers to your...
For a poor man's geocell have a look at
Tire-reinforced earthfill. Part 1: Construction of a test fill, performance, and retaining wall design
Vinod K. Garga and Vince O'Shaughnessy
Can. Geotech. J./Rev. can. geotech. 37(1): 75-96 (2000)
You should be able to download a copy at...
Members following this thread may find Dave Brown's column in Saturday's Ottawa Citizen to be of interest.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=37a81beb-94c7-40a8-a30e-94eb7d4addff
What a treasure find!
A tachymeter for surveying os a mind of theodolite, and not similar to a slide rule.
A slide rule type tachymeter is something different. Some watches have them around the bezel. It is a kind of circular slide rule that relates time, distance travelled, and speed.
Trench dams are frequently specified here in Ottawa (Canada) for water and sewer laterals, and put near the property line.
I do not get involved too much in wetland preservation, but have seen cases where they have been used to mitigate drainage for major sewer trunks.
This city has several...
Through the fall of 1999, I kept my 1972-era 10" Decilon, in its nerdy leather case, on a hook beside my PC. I stuck a dymo label on it that read, "YTK Compliant".
Meanwhile out IT people were driving everyone crazy making sure we were ready for the end-of-civilization-as we-know-it.
I still...
ASTM D2487 is pretty clear on this. The principle question to be answered is, "Does the presence of organic matter influence the liquid limit?"
If the soil is inorganic, the liquid limit should be relatively insensitive to whether the liquid limit sample is prepared by air or oven drying...
Having recently been involved with discussions with one of the pioneers of TDR soil water content measurement, who is a soil physicist semi-retired from Agriculture Canada, I can pretty much guarantee that agronomists use volumetric water content, and calculate it from volume of water divided by...
