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Methods for improvement of engineering properties of peat - a comparative study

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dc.contributor.advisor Kulathilake, SAS
dc.contributor.author Munasinghe, WGS
dc.date.accessioned 2011-06-15T04:29:18Z
dc.date.available 2011-06-15T04:29:18Z
dc.identifier.uri http://dl.lib.mrt.ac.lk/handle/123/1124
dc.description.abstract Development of cost effective methods for improvement of engineering properties of peat is a need of the hour in Sri Lanka in view of the number of major infrastructure development projects that are proposed over the lands underlain by peat. In this research several different methods of improvements were tried out in Sri Lankan peat, which have a rather low organic content around 20%-40%. The improvement methods tried out were namely; pre-consolidation through preloading, mixing with cement at percentages of 5%, 10% and 15% and mixing 15% of lime. Peats at different levels of humification were used in the study. It was shown that the preconsolidation causes a significant improvement in both the primary and secondary consolidation characteristics irrespective of the degree of humification. Improvements were achieved in both the fibrous and amorphous peat. Even after the mixing of 15% of cement or 15% of lime significant improvements of consolidation characteristics could not be achieved in fibrous peat. But, even the mixing of 5% cement caused significant improvements in both the primary and secondary consolidation characteristics in amorphous peats. The organic contents of the two types of peat considered were similar. Improvements of shear strength were achieved in all types of peat due to preconsolidation. Mixing with cement also caused some improvements in undrained shear strength of Peat. However, these improvements were not as high as those reported for inorganic soils. Consolidation tests were conducted with simultaneous measurement of settlement and pore water pressure, in a new experimental setup developed. The data obtained were used to check the validity of the Terzaghi theory to model the consolidation behaviour of peat. Some experiments were conducted to derive Bjerrum curves for Peat.
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.subject CIVIL ENGINEERING-Thesis
dc.subject SOIL MECHANICS
dc.subject PEAT
dc.title Methods for improvement of engineering properties of peat - a comparative study
dc.type Thesis-Full-text
dc.identifier.faculty Engineering en_US
dc.identifier.degree MSc en_US
dc.identifier.department Department of Civil Engineering en_US
dc.date.accept 2001
dc.identifier.accno 74345 en_US


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