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Pre-saturating and post-saturation measurements of shear samples

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VanNuysDave

Geotechnical
Mar 5, 2003
9
Although pre-saturating is part of sample preparation that is performed in laboratories many times a day, this question is both a "how to do it properly and practically", and a research questionaire to identify the state of practice methods used by geotechnical testing laboratories to correctly pre-saturate soil and bedrock samples to be tested in a shear box (not triaxial).
Based on my findings of this topic, with our own laboratories and many other outside labs we have used, it seems that the obtaining close to 100% degree of saturation prior to testing is hard to achieve within a reasonable timeframe(assuming all the data to calculate degree of saturation is correct).
Saturation of samples (ring) for the shear box with fine grained soils and fine sedimentary bedrock (claystone and siltstone)using normal approaches (static soaking, deairing etc.)seems to be difficult to achieve without inducing considerable sample disturbance during the procedure.
Any and all thoughts on this matter would be appreciated.
 
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