Consultancy Tests

Dr. EVR Rao
Hod, Department of Civil Engineering
Kalinga University Raipur
Following tests are the important tests which are very useful in Civil engineering (Soil Engineering) Consultancy works:
Consultancy Tests required for Geo-Technical Engineering (Soil Mechanics)
Soil Engineering: Index and Engineering properties are required for Geotechnical Consultants.
Identification of Soil Properties:
Water Content or Moisture Content is an important soil Properties. Moisture content in the Laboratory can be Identified by the following methods such as (i) Oven Drying (ii) Calcium Carbide (iii) Pycnometer (iv) Proctor Needle. According to IS : 2720 (Part II) the test should be conducted.
Specific Gravity of soil also an important Property of soil and can be Identified by three methods such as (i)Pycnometer (ii) Density Bottle and (iii)Shrinkage Limit. According to IS: 2720 (Part II) 1980 Specific Gravity value can be determined.
Field density of soil can be determined by two methods such as (i) Core Cutter and (ii) Sand replacement are very much useful.
Sometimes Site Engineer is interested to have rough assessment of the engineering properties without conducting detailed explorations (tests).This is possible if index properties of soils are known or determined. Index charecteristics are indicating Engineering properties of soils. Simple Classification tests are useful for determination of index properties of soils.
Index Properties such as Atterberg’s Limits can be Identified in Soil Mechanics Laboratory for Clays.The soil classification and identification are based on Atterberg’s Limits.
Liquid Limit can be determined by (i) Casagrande’s Liquid Limit device and (ii) Cone penetrometer method.
Void ratio of a soil is a measure of looseness or denseness of soil sample and is one of the important parameter of soils. Engineering properties of soils depends up on void ratio to large extent. The void ratio in the laboratory can be determined indirectly from the dry mass density of soil.
The mechanical analysis of soils can be done by two methods, they are (i) Sieve Analysis and (ii) Sedimentation Analysis.
The important Engineering properties of soils are (i) Permeability (ii) Compaction Characteristics (iii) Consolidation (iv) Shear Strength (v) Bearing Capacity (vi) CBR value etc.
Permeability of soils in the lab can be identified by (i) Constant head method and (ii) Falling head permeability method.
Compaction can be done by (i) IS light compaction Test and (ii) IS heavy Compaction test.
In Shear tests shear Parameters are determined. Bearing capacity of soil can be determined from shear parameters of soils. CBR test is used to measure penetration resistance of soil and is used to check the suitability of soil for highway construction as Civil Engineering material.