Electrical Survey of Peat Deposits

The boundary conditions in direct simple shear tests: Developments for peat testing at low normal stress

More than the half of the Netherlands is under the high level of sea and rivers. Therefore, evaluating the safety of dykes is primordial. A specific interest is given to peat dykes safety which suffer of a lack of knowledge which manifested recently by some peat dykes failures (Van Baars 2005). The behaviour of peat is also of interest in others...

Eddy covariance observations of methane and nitrous oxide emissions: Towards more accurate estimates from ecosystems

About 30% of the increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are related to land use changes and agricultural activities. In order to select effective measures, knowledge is required about GHG emissions from these ecosystems and how these emissions are influenced by management and...

Failure of Peat Dikes due to Drought

This research investigates the Wilnis dike failure that occurred in the dry summer of 2003. It is believed that drought played an important role in decreasing the stability of the dike, finally leading to failure. In the reported MSc project the situation during drought is simulated with the help of finite element method programs Plaxis and...

Hybrid Rowe cell for measurement of complex conductivity

Peat is sediment consisting of incompletely decomposed organic matter deposited in swamp and marsh. It has served for a long time as benefits for human beings. Meanwhile, it has posed huge challenges to geotechnical engineers because of its unique characteristics such as anisotropy, low stiffness, high compressibility and strong creep...

Geotechnical characteristics of peat

Peat soil is encountered in many areas and generally originates from plant/animal remains and is considered partly as decomposed biomass. Due to this composition, the structure of this soil is very different when compared with inorganic soils like clay, sand and gravel. Peat has a high compressibility, low shear strength, high moisture content...

Comparative study of British and Malaysian peat soils pertainting to geotechnical characteristics

Peat soils occur in many countries and are described differently at times from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Peats are formed naturally through the decomposition of plant and animal matter under anaerobic conditions that take place over long periods of time. While the estimated and reported extent of Malaysian peat was...

The influence of anisotropy on the consolidation behaviour of peat

Soft soil is often described as an anisotropic heterogeneous material. Standard soil investigation mainly involves vertically retrieved samples. Information on the parameters working in the horizontal direction remains scarce. Principally each soil property like permeability, stiffness or strength might show anisotropic behaviour. This thesis...

Construction on peat and organic soils

This technical document describes the behaviour of peat and gives an overview of the design methodes for peat. Subject headings include general characteristics and classification issues, prototypes of peat problems, design and calculation methods, special construction techniques, parameter determination safety aspects and monitoring.

Assessment of the effect of the reclamation of acid sulphate soil for agricultural development in Vietnam

Vietnam is an agricultural country where rice is the main crop cultivated in the Red river delta in the North and in the Mekong delta in the South. Both deltas refer to lowland. However, the degree of development is clearly different between the two deltas. In the Red river delta, the dike system as well as the canal networks have been...

Tidal Swamp development by Pump Irrigation and Gravity Drainage, Acid Sulphate Soils, Kalimantan, Indonesia

This report is a study on the possibilities of practising irrigation & drainage at a large scale in tidal lowlands with acid sulphate soils in the humid tropics. The first chapters concern lowlands and their development in Indonesia. It appears that many of these lands become unfertile shortly after reclamation due to oxidation of pyrite,...

An overview of he mechanical behaviour of peats and organic soils and some appropriate construction techniques

The behaviour of peats and organic soils is usually approached with the concepts and methods developed for inorganic clays. However, important anomalies exist, and these are given emphasis in the present overview of the mechanical behaviour of these soils. Subject headings include index properties and general characteristics, classification...

Tidal gullies in youngest peat layer of Groningen

Where the top layer of clayey substance was thin and the underlying peat layer thick, the shrinkage of the latter had been such that the clay-filled gullies appeared as ridges of about ½ to 1 m high in the field. Farmers sometimes call these ridges ,,natural dykes". In some places they have dug up parts of these ancient depots of good clay and...