Equipment for Measuring the Water Permeability as a Function of Degree of Saturation for Frost Susceptible Soils.

摘要

Equipment has been developed for measuring the water permeability as a function of degree of saturation on laboratory compacted soil samples. The apparatus can be operated at hydrostatic pressure up to 7kg/sq cm. The water flow system was designed for continuous uninterrupted flow at high pressure and for manual monitoring of inflow and outflow rates. Permeabilities between 0.01and 10to the minus 9th power cm/sec can be measured. The limit on Delta U (average water pressure minus air pressure) is 6kg/sq cm. The prototype equipment developed was used to design and build an operational unit which is in operation at the Research Laboratory,Department of Transportation,Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Thirty-three successful tests on selected soils were completed. Based on the K-(delta U) characteristic,the frost susceptibility of the soils tested was predicted and compared with predictions obtained from CRREL and MASS freezing test procedures. (Modified author abstract)