Review of consolidation test on peat soil of Batubara Regency Sumatera Utara Province

Abstract

Organic soil is soil that has organic content which influences soil characteristic. Peat soil has high water content, high void ratio, low bearing capacity, and high compression so that settlement on peat soil is very large. It makes peat soil categorized as bad soil for construction. The purposes of this research were to know the index properties of peat soil, to determine the classification of peat soil, and to analysed the compression index (Cc ) and coefficient of consolidation (Cv ) by consolidation test with gradually loading from 0.5 kg, 1 kg, 2 kg, 4 kg, and 8 kg and immediately loading of 1 kg and 4 kg for 7 days. Peat soil Paya Pinang Plantation had 732.0 % water content (w), specific gravity (Gs ) of 1.533, void ratio (e) of 8.235, moist unit weight (γb ) of 1.008 gr/cm3, dry unit weight (γd ) of 0.166 gr/cm3. Based on ASTM D4427-92 (2002) peat soil sample had 22.424 % ash content, which classified as high ash peat and as slightly acidic peat with a pH greater than 5.5 and less than 7. The compression index (Cc ) was 0.693 and coefficient of consolidation (Cv ) was 0.275cm2/sec.