A study on soil characteristic of clay in Perlis

Abstract

Soils are the form of many layers that cover up the Earth’s surface. As for an environmental engineer soil is an invention of the surroundings and its creation is a function of climate, organisms, parent rock or material, relief and time. The objective of this study was to study on soil characteristic of in Perlis, to study the properties of clay namely moisture content, shear strength and to study the effect of climate to the clay sample taken. Therefore the sample of clay will be taken from 4 Mukims that contain clay especially near the paddy field. It shows the characteristic of clay from observations, and physical properties. Then the samples will undergo for 5 tests that are moisture content test, sieve analysis test, atterberg limit test, consolidation test and triaxial shear test. Result from the research shows that the soil is suitable for construction because it can be easily compacted into a dense mass with minimum voids. Void in this term is related to porosity. When the void ratio is small the soil is dense. As the particles of grain were interlocking, the tendency for displacement by individual grains due to loads or moisture is minimized. Coefficient of consolidation, Cv, been determined by using the square root time method. The consolidation helps in determined the rate of compression. Mohr circle are used to determine the shear strength based on the results of the triaxial shear test for unconsolidated undrained (UU). In the other hand, moisture content of the soil shows that the amount of it depends on the rainfall. The soil moisture content in Perlis showed that it depends on rainfall. Point 1 has an average moisture content of 50%, while point 2 has an average moisture content of 47% show a high values due to the samples were taken during the rainy season.