Estimation of Flow Characteristics in Peat

Abstract

This paper presents the behavior of the soft subsoil under structures such as embankment dams, particularly tailing dams which are nowadays usually placed in swampy areas often dominated by organic soils, such as peat. Structures construction on soft organic soils makes it necessary to calculate subsoil deformations with special consideration of the water flow. Constructions of embankments on soft organic soils cause many problems because of their specific properties. The organic soils, such as peat, are characterized by high porosity and low shear strength as well as high initial permeability which decreases during consolidation. In the deformation process of soil skeleton under loading the porosity decreases and causes changes of flow characteristics. Therefore, the water flow characteristics are very important to be considered in predicting and calculating the subsoil deformation under load. The specific behavior of soft subsoil demands estimation reliability of the flow characteristics. Therefore in the statistical analysis suitable statistical methods and proper measures in laboratory tests should be used. Several statistical functions have been applied to analyze the flow-pump test data in order to provide a correct estimation of flow characteristics in soft soils. In this paper, the results of water flow characteristics obtained in laboratory tests and the estimation of flow characteristics in soft organic soils are presented.