The Soils Mechanics Laboratory, located in 430
Rhodes Hall, is a spacious, well-lighted, air-conditioned laboratory equipped
with a complete line of equipment necessary for conducting the basic laboratory
tests by up to four groups of five students each at a time. Large tables
are available for student study and analysis as is adequate counter top
space. Blackboard space is plentiful. The laboratory is wired to the
College of Engineering network. Pentium computers and laser printers are
available in the laboratory. The laboratory is a true workstation where
students are taught the principles in the front section of the room, and then
turn around and perform the experiments in the back of the lab space.
Equipment is available for the following routine tests as part of the course CEE
477 Soil Mechanics Laboratory: mechanical or sieve analysis, Atterberg limits,
soil moisture-dry unit weight relationships (Proctors or compaction tests),
permeability or hydraulic conductivity, consolidation, unconfined compression,
direct shear, triaxial shear, and California bearing ratio.
The Soil Mechanics
Laboratory has the following major equipment:
Direct shear apparatus for the testing of cohesive
soils
Triaxial shear testing system for saturating/consolidating
three specimens at any one time and shear testing one sample at a
time
Dlurry permeameter (for hydraulic conductivity testing of
soil slurries)
Free swell apparatus
API filter press (for testing filter cake formation in
soil-water slurries)
Marsh funnel (for testing viscosity of soil-water
slurries)
Hanging column apparatus (for measuring soil water
characteristic curves of coarse grained soils and geotextiles)
Pore pressure transducers
pH/ISE/EC meter (to measure concentration of ions in
solution, electrical conductivity, and pH) The Soil Mechanics Laboratory is
also equipped for limited asphalt testing. To conduct more extensive
asphalt tests, the students are taken to a state-of-the-art Asphalt Testing
Laboratory operated by a private materials testing company.
