Research Information System
2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, EPOKA University, Tirana, ALBANIA, Albania, 1 - 04 May 2013, pp.882-889
As a result of the fast growth of the population, the rapidly ongoing urbanization and industrialization that began in the twentieth century and still continues today, has caused an enormous consumption of the urban development areas in Turkey. Consequently, it has become an utmost necessity to open new areas for urban development purposes especially in the recent years. Among these new areas, lands that have been proved to be geotechnically unsuitable, in other words, lands that show low bearing capacity properties, are occasionally opened up for urban development purposes. Peat or organic soils have low bearing capacity and high deformation problems are to be encountered as weak foundation soils. Engineering properties of peats are significantly different from most inorganic soils. However, the same fundamental mechanisms and factors determine behavior of both inorganic soils and peats.
The present paper describes the physical and engineering properties of peat soils from Kayseri Free Zone and Kayseri Organized Industrial Zone in Turkey. Different physical properties such as organic content (OC), liquid limit (LL), fibre content (FC), specific gravity (Gs) and engineering properties (mainly the standard Proctor test and consolidation test) have been conducted on disturbed and undisturbed peat soil samples. Also, pictures of organic soils taken with Scanning Electron Microscope-SEM and Electron Diffusion Spectrum-EDS are given in this study.
The test results showed that the natural water contents, organic contents, liquid limits and bulk densities ranged from 90-220%, 18.6-25.0%, 130.0-150.0% and 12.75-13.25 kN/m3, respectively.