Laboratory testing of Italian peaty soils

This paper presents laboratory findings in peats from two different Italian sites; the tested peats are typical of superficial deposits near the Northern Adriatic Coast. Standard and special laboratory tests were carried out on undisturbed soil cores. In particular, oedometer tests in standard and in Rowe cell with measurement of pore pressure, adopting different load increment ratio and load permanence, were performed. The compression characteristics (C c, C α) and the difficulties involved in reliably determining the end of primary consolidation and evaluating the permeability were investigated. Since one peat is normal-consolidated and the other is over-consolidated, a different behavior was expected and is described. The data are also compared with those in the literature.