An Evaluation of Shrinkage Measurement on Undisturbed Peat Soil Using Modified Techniques

Peat soils occur in many countries and naturally formed by the decomposition of plant matter. It will give rise to an extreme of challenging ground conditions and peat soils also are known as a very problematic soft soil. For peat soil condition, shrinkage effect is one of the factors that can affect the strength and moisture content of soils. The aim of the study is to evaluate the shrinkage measurement of peat soils with modified techniques to compare with the British Standard method. Peat samples were collected from Parit Nipah (PPN) and Pontian (PP). Linear shrinkage of undisturbed peat soil is observed every hour until there are no volume changes. Linear measurement for modified method that using undisturbed sample is extremely different and higher than British standard method which is using reconstituted soil sample that had been sieve passing 425 μm. Sieve process will disrupt the composition of actual peat soil because it will remove any decomposed plants. The shrinkage measurements during the drying process influenced the volume of peat soils as the volume decreases when the soil is shrunk.