Geotechnical Characterization of Peats in Muthurajawela Region in the Western Coast of Sri Lanka
- PDF / 1,057,258 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 547.087 x 737.008 pts Page_size
- 109 Downloads / 262 Views
(0123456789().,-volV) ( 01234567 89().,-volV)
ORIGINAL PAPER
Geotechnical Characterization of Peats in Muthurajawela Region in the Western Coast of Sri Lanka A. M. Z. Zimar . M. C. M. Nasvi . S. Jayakody
Received: 31 December 2018 / Accepted: 6 July 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Peatland covers a total area of 2500 hectares in Sri Lanka, and a more significant portion of it spreads in the western coast of the country through Muthurajawela wetland, which is the largest wetland in Sri Lanka extending from Colombo to Negombo. Colombo Katunayake Expressway (CKE) is a recently completed project in this region, and a lot of peatlands were encountered in the construction. To date, there are no studies focusing on characterization of peats in Muthurajawela region. Therefore, this study focused on investigating the geotechnical properties of peats in Muthurajawela region. Peat samples were obtained from six different locations in this area, and the samples were subjected to investigate the index properties including moisture content, density, specific gravity, fiber content, ash content, organic content and acidity, and consolidation characteristics. Further, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image analysis and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis were conducted to analyze the structure and to identify A. M. Z. Zimar (&) S. Jayakody Department of Civil Engineering, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Oluvil 32360, Sri Lanka e-mail: [email protected] S. Jayakody e-mail: [email protected] M. C. M. Nasvi Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya 20400, Sri Lanka e-mail: [email protected]
the elemental composition of peat samples. According to the basic investigations; Muthurajawela peats were classified as ‘‘Fibric and Hemic’’ peats with high acidity. The results further analysed to develop correlations for the easy prediction of some properties and, the developed correlations were compared with those reported in the literature. The obtained consolidation properties were indicated that the large portion of settlement occurs during the primary consolidation stage within a short time. On the whole, findings of this research will enable engineers to better understand Muthurajawela peat for the design and construction in this region. Keywords Peat Compression index Consolidation Index properties
1 Introduction Peat forms by organic decomposition with microbial activity and exhibits inconsistent characteristic due to the aerobic and anaerobic microbes activities, low temperature, low pH, low nutrient levels in flowing waters and low oxygen availability (Moore 1987). Peat is distributed about 4.5% of the total land area in the world, which is approximately one billion acres (Mesri and Ajlouni 2007). The climatic and atmospheric conditions around the peatlands were favourably affected on urbanisation; therefore, engineering
123
Geotech Geol Eng
constructions are always engaged with the peat soil, and it is inevitable. Peat covers a total area of 2500 h
Data Loading...
