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Reinforced
Earth Caps over Soft Industrial Sludges
The construction of earthen caps over industrial sludges presents many challenges,
most of which are related to the inherently soft, low shear strength nature
of the sludge. Successfully placing men, equipment and fill material over sludges
that often will not support a man’s weight requires both engineering calculation
and judgment. The challenge is further increased by the sensitive nature of
most sludge, resulting in an ever changing and weakening material. Failure to
accurately determine the shear strength of the sludge, and to accommodate its
sensitive nature, has led to dramatic cap failures endangering both workers
and equipment.
SES engineers have extensive experience in working with a wide variety of industrial sludges as indicated by the project summaries presented in Appendix B. Since the shear strength and sensitivity of the sludge are the driving elements of a successful design, an accurate determination of these parameters is critical. The techniques developed by SES engineers for the determination of these important parameters is state-of-the-art and can be accomplished safely and quickly at significantly lower cost than conventional techniques.
