SEDL / STP / STP599-EB / STP39080S

Pore Water Extraction and the Effect of Sample Storage on the Pore Water Chemistry of Leda Clay

Torrance, JK
Associate professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ont.

Pages: 11    Published: Jan 1976

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Abstract

In recent years, the potential significance of chemical and mineralogical influences on the behavior of the post-glacial marine clays has been increasingly recognized by the soils engineering community. The precise relationships are not known, but it seems probable that, in some cases, small differences in chemical factors may explain the differences in behavior between otherwise similar samples. In connection with an investigation of these relationships, the experiments reported in this paper were undertaken to examine the magnitude of chemical change which may occur in low-salinity Leda clay during periods of storage. Pore water extraction devices are described, and the effects on the pore water chemistry of three months storage, under a variety of standard and modified storage procedures, are reported. It is concluded that none of the storage procedures tested is entirely satisfactory, in that potentially significant changes in the pore water chemistry occurred. Finally, it is recommended that pore water chemistry be assessed more often than is the present practice when soils engineering tests are performed on Leda clay and that this be done as soon as possible after the sample is obtained from the field.