Consolidation Frame

[hollowstemhead]

Hello:

I have been playing around with an old fulcrum/lever arm style consolidation frame (Soiltest C-280) with floating ring setup. In discussion with colleagues who have (historically) used the same setup, they mention the use of a 1 inch calibrated steel block placed between the porous stones in the ring, pushing down finger tight to get a base dial reading. They explained this gives an "H sub0" value, basically countering the difference in theoretical height of the specimen in the ring (I guess equal to the height of the calibrated block) and what it actually is. I can't seem to find any mention of this step in the old manuals I pulled from the Soiltest/ELE website or any other procedures I've looked at. Anybody have any experience or resources they could help me out with here? Thanks.

 

[Ron]

See if you can find a Wickham-Farrance equipment manual. I believe you'll find a reference to that method.

 

[escrowe]

I used to follow a similar procedure for calibration of the consolidometer. We would apply the usual incremental consolidation load to a porous stone and 1" hardened steel follower, and read the resulting deformation at each increment. This procedure actually shows deformation *of the machine components* per load increment. Some frames deform quite a bit at higher loads.