Fiber Effects on Compressibility of Peat

Abstract

Fibers found in the soil, especially in peaty soil play an important role in the determination of soil compressibility. Peat soils are the results from the decomposition of organic matter and the type of peat can be classified based on the fibrous material in the soil. In the engineering field, peat soil was mostly known as soils that has a serious settlement with high compressibility index. From the previous research, fibers in the soil were influenced in compressibility in terms of size, shape, fibric, soil arrangement and etc. Hence, this study attempts the determination of fibers effects on the compressibility of peat using a 1-D oedometer consolidation test. The reconstituted peat samples of different particle sizes were used to determine the consolidation parameters and the results obtained from reconstituted samples were also compared with the undisturbed sample. 1-D oedometer consolidation tests were performed on the samples by using the load increment method. The results shows, the higher particle size (R3.35), give higher moisture content (w = 401.20%) and higher initial void ratio (eo = 5.74). In settlement prediction, the higher the fiber content will results the higher the compression index, therefore, it will cause high of settlement.