A computer-controlled triaxial swelling test apparatus

Abstract

To avoid the problems encountered during and after the construction of engineering structures built within swelling rocks or soils, data related to swelling stresses and strains should be used in the design stage. For an effective design, it is important that the data used for this purpose should be derived from triaxial swelling tests. In this article, a re-designed and computer-controlled triaxial swelling test apparatus is introduced. Due to the limited amount of test equipment, the work associated with triaxial swelling tests has been rather limited and consequently a test standard has not been developed yet. The computer-controlled triaxial swelling test apparatus has made tedious swelling tests easier and thus it has provided better possibilities for the investigation of the triaxial swelling behavior of soils and rocks.