Laboratory evaluation of sampling quality of a new A+ sampler for natural fine soils

Abstract

This paper presents a comparison of sampling disturbance measured by consolidation tests between two high quality samplers and stationary piston samplers. University G. Eiffel and Cerema have used their université Laval sampler and a new sampler on a soft organic clayey soil experimental site. This paper present first the new sampler designed to sample almost undisturbed soil specimens. The objectives of this sampler are to collect natural fine soils such as clay or silt, normally to medium overconsolidated for depths up to 10 m. This sampler is designed to preserve the saturation state of the specimen. An inner diameter of 150mm core barrel allow to keep the sampler relatively compact, even with the size of a ball valve used to close the sampler. Tests on Pont de Cran clayey site are presented and laboratory tests results on specimen sampled using both samplers show the quality of the specimen and the efficiency of the samplers using void ratio criteria.