Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations IDS on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

One Dimensional Consolidation Question

Status
Not open for further replies.

whitejuv

Civil/Environmental
Apr 23, 2017
10
Hi all! I'm a new engineer and have been working at a geotechnical company for a couple of months. I am trying to read standards, publications, test procedures, and get as much information as possible for my job. We also do soil laboratory testing, and I have a problem with the oedometer test, and wanted to discuss it with someone who has more experience than me.

I have set up a clay sample and want to perform the 1D consolidation test. The sample diameter was 7.5cm and the height 20mm. After setting up the sample in the assembly (with porous stones and filters included), I filled the assembly with water. Now, in order to keep the sample from swelling, the ASTM standard says to apply a stress of around 5 kPa (could be more or less, depending on the soil). In my case, in order to avoid swelling and bring the sample height back to 20mm (it got swollen as soon as i put the water), i needed to apply the stress of 100 kPa.

I was originally planning a loading series of 50 kPa, 100 kPa, 200 kPa, 400 kPa, (and then perform the unloading and reloading accordingly).

My question is, what should the next loading series be? Should I continue with 200 kPa (since the first load needed to be 100 kPa)? Should I continue with my original plan and add (50kPa, 100kPa, 200kPa...) to the initial 100 kPa stress?

I would really appreciate if you could give me some guidance.

Thank you so much!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor