Learning a New Soil Test Method by Myself

[Apexwolf]

If this is the wrong forum please move to the correct one.

I am new to geological science and work for a small geotechnical firm. I am the only lab tech the place has and have basically only been doing soil compaction, and expansion test for 2 years. There was a senior lab tech that knew the procedures and worked for the company as well but he recently passed. Now I am trying to learn some new tests without his aid and reading ASTM procedures can be somewhat, lets say difficult to understand fully. I need to figure out how to properly run a thermal conductivity test for soils but ASTM D 5334 is kind of vague on a few steps. I am going to be doing a reconstituted soil sample, but it gives no information on sample size, compaction percentage, moisture or any other compaction criteria.

It references "Mitchell, J. K., Kao, T. C., and Abdel-Hadi, O. N., “Backfill Materialsfor Underground Power Cables,” Department of Civil Engineering,University of California at Berkeley, EPRI EL-506, June 1977" but that is just an article on the ones who figured how to run the test, and in there I couldn't find anywhere it references an "appropriate compaction technique". Does anyone have information on how to run this test? Some test results with the lab info, some video online(YouTube had nothing but companies saying how to use their device, not how to perform the test), anything. Am I overthinking this?

 

[jrmichler]

I suggest contacting ASTM to find if they have a training course for D5334: https://www.astm.org/products-services/training-courses.html. And their contact page: https://www.astm.org/contact/.

 

[paradoxlost]

What is the purpose of these tests? Like what are you trying to replicate? Get the bulk density of what you are trying to replicate. Soil sampling is ridiculously hard. Web Soil Survey can give you soil maps, but honestly, they're not that useful at the below hectacre scale. Who is doing the field sampling? You need to develop a relationship with that person if you want to be accurate. But if you're backfilling a pipeline, honestly, it should be quite uniform.

 

[Apexwolf]

We have in house field techs that grabbed the sample. It is for electric car charging stations under existing asphalt. The tech drilled the asphalt and got some samples from a few holes. My Civil said to run it at 90% of max compaction, only problem is I don't have enough to run a max, let alone a max and the thermal.