Effect of temperature and heating time variation on characteristics of fibrous peat soils

Abstract

Peat soil is a soil that has a large organic content and high moisture content. During the dry season, on the island of Sumatra, especially South Sumatra, the earth‘s atmospheric temperature has increased, causing frequent cases of forest fires on peatlands. Both those caused by humans and the sun’s heat. Increasing the atmospheric temperature of the earth and fires on peatlands will have an impact on the characteristics of peat soils. To find out the changes in peat soil, in this research using temperature variations (30°C, 50°C, 80°C, 100°C, 120°C, 150°C) and heati ng time variations (6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours and 48 hours). The locations for peat soil sample: KTM Telang Mulya Sari, Dusun I Banyu Urip, and Dusun III Banyu Urip. The optimum value of the remaining water content (ωopt) is 93.65 % of the location of the peat soil KTM Telang Mulya Sari. These results were obtained at a temperature of 30°C and a heating time for 6 hours. Then for testing the unconfined compressive strength for peat soil without heating obtained the most optimum cu value of 0.285 kg/cm2 in the soil of Dusun I Banyu Urip. As for the testing of unconfined compressive strength test with heating, the highest cu value was also found in the peat soil test specimen in Dusun III Banyu Urip which was heated with a temperature of 150°C and a heating time of 48 hours which was equal to 0.93 kg/cm2.