Compression Test Services

When a top load is applied, such as a slope or a piece of raised ground, the underlying soil strata are compressed. The top load creates an increase in the effective load, which compresses the grain skeleton. To calculate this behaviour we need to know the behaviour of the ground. That information is obtained by carrying out compression tests on undisturbed soil samples in the laboratory. For this test an undisturbed soil sample is obliquely confined and vertically loaded. That prevents deformation from taking place horizontally. The deformation and load approximately correspond to the raising of land over a large surface. Raising the load on the sample in a number of steps and continuously registering the course of settlement makes it possible to derive the compression constant (C-value) from the sample.