ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract.

This study was carried out to investigate the soil strength properties of some contaminated land in Rivers State. Soil samples were collected from three different sites in the state, namely: Idama in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area, Bodo in Gokana Local Government Area and Ejama Ebubu in Eleme Local Government Area. The type of soils in each of the local government area above were loamy sand, sandy loam and sandy clay loam respectively. The parameters of the soils investigated were soil consistency limits, specific gravity, bulk density, and shear strength. Specific gravity was determined using ASTM D7172 - 06e1 standard method while maximum dry density was determined on dry weight basis. Shear strength was determined using trixial confined compression test. Results obtained indicated that the shear strength of the contaminated sandy loam soil(207.1KN/M² ) was greater than that of the other soils namely: contaminated sandy clay loam(190.9KN/M² ) and contaminated loamy sand(151.4KN/M² ) . Furthermore, the plasticity limit of contaminated loamy sand(78.80) was the highest, followed by that of contaminated sandy clay loam(54.00) and then contaminated sandy loam(22.01) . The optimum moisture content of the contaminated samples gave the maximum dry bulk densities of 1.56kg/m³, 1.55kg/m³ and 0.74kg/m³ at 25 compaction blows for Idama in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area, Bodo in Gokana Local Government Area and Ejama Ebubu in Eleme Local Government Area respectively. Dry bulk density increased with increase in fine sand and silt content. Shear strength of the sandy loam( 207.1 KN/M² ) was the greatest followed by that of sandy clay loam while loamy sand was the least.