Consolidation behaviour of peat soil

Abstract

Peat soils are known as one of problematic soft soil. Engineer’s encounters construction related to peat soil will be facing a lot of problem in short and also long term. Unlike any other inorganic soils, peats have their own unique consolidation behaviour. In term of its mechanical strength, peats are unable to withstand high pressure due to its high content of void ratio, water content and organic materials. Its primary compression is high followed by secondary compression which is slightly big if compared with other inorganic soils. In this paper, all consolidation parameters were analysed and compared between untreated and treated sample. The common parameters obtained from a typical One-Dimensional Consolidation Test are coefficient of Volume compressibility, Mv, Coefficient of Consolidation, Cv, Coefficient of secondary compression, Cα, and Compression index, Cc. These values help in interpreting the compressional behaviour of peat soil laboratorically. The results analysed shows a great potential of peat as any other inorganic soil to receive large loading.