The Usage of Different Drying Temperatures to Determine the Organic Matter in Soils

Abstract

The organic soils are considered to be problematic soil based on the viewpoint of geotechnical engineering discipline depending on their tendency to high compressibility. Depending on the low shear strength characteristics of organic soils, the projects that are constructed on the soil formations which include organic content greater than %20, have to be controlled in terms of long term behaviour to ensure sustainable usage. Therefore, it is a significant phenomenon to determine the organic content of the soil mass that is dominated in the construction field of the envisaged project. Within the context of the study, the instructions which are defined in “ASTM D2974-Standard Test Methods for Moisture, Ash, and Organic Matter of Peat and Other Organic Soils” is applied to the special soils which are obtained from 21 different test pits opened in Istanbul Province, Arnavutkoy district, Tayakadin localization. It is aimed to search for the effects of the usage of different drying temperatures on the determined amount of organic matter contents of soil masses. Within this purpose, the C and D subdivisions of ASTM D2974, which are suggested to apply 440 and 750°C drying temperatures, respectively, are applied to identify the organic matter content of foreseen soil types. Consequently, interpretations are made to specialize the appropriateness of the application of high drying temperatures on soils and the effective rates of drying temperatures on the determination of organic content of soils.

Keywords: Water Content Determination, Organic Matter Content, Soil, Drying Temperature, Physical test

JEL Classification: A,Y,Z