ISSN: 1945-7545
CODEN: GTJODJ
Page Count: 331

A Modified Pressure Plate Apparatus

Leong, EC
Associate Professor, and Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,

Tripathy, S
Associate Professor, and Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,

Rahardjo, H
Associate Professor, and Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,

(Received 10 December 2001; accepted 25 August 2003)

Abstract

Soil-water characteristic curves of soils can be measured in the laboratory using conventional testing apparatus such as the pressure plate. This paper describes a modified pressure plate apparatus using a commercially available high air entry ceramic plate. The modified pressure plate apparatus has several advantages over the conventional pressure plate apparatus: It can be used to determine both the drying and wetting soil-water characteristic curves, whereas the conventional pressure plate can usually determine only the drying soil-water characteristic curve; the water reservoir beneath the ceramic plate ensures that the ceramic plate is fully saturated at all times; air appearing in the water reservoir due to air diffusion through the ceramic disk can be flushed out by the cross-flow system during the test without stoppage of the test.

Keywords:
unsaturated soils, modified pressure plate, soil-water characteristic curve, drying and wetting

Paper ID: GTJ11053
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ11053
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