Laboratory Testing of Soils Webinar

The Laboratory Testing of Soils online PDH webinar is a part of our group of on-demand online webinars. This webinar is an introduction to the fundamentals of the principles and practices of laboratory soil testing.

This webinar will introduce you to the principles and practices of laboratory testing of soils. You will learn about index property, permeability, consolidation, and shear strength tests.  You will learn about laboratory equipment and test procedures.  You will learn when the various ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) tests are applicable and how to utilize the test result data.

This webinar is intended for civil and geotechnical engineers and other construction professionals needing an introductory understanding of laboratory soil tests.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the webinar, you will be able to:

• Explain how dynamic tests are used to evaluate foundation support characteristics under repeated loadings such as a drop forge, traffic, or earthquake; and the associated risks of liquefaction.
• Discuss correlations between index and structural properties showing the probable range of test values and relation of parameters.
• Apply grain-size analysis to seepage and drainage problems.
• Compute permeability of fine-grained soils (undisturbed or compacted) from consolidation test data or by direct measurement on consolidation or triaxial shear specimens.
• Describe how one-dimensional consolidation tests with complete lateral confinement are used to determine total compression of fine-grained soil under an applied load.
• Estimate preconsolidation pressure using graphical determination from a semi-logarithmic pressure-void ratio curve.
• Explain the coefficient of consolidation.
• Discuss how the shear strength of soil is required for the analysis of foundation and earthwork stability problems.
• Explain different types of shear tests.
• Explain direct shear tests.