There are a large number of soil tests related to construction:
- Particle Size Distribution test - finds the relative proportions of differing grain sizes within a soil
- Atterberg Limit test - used to establish the plasticity class of the soil
- Compaction test - used to find the optimum moisture content to achieve a maximum density
- Consolidation / Oedometer testing - used to establish the settlement potential of a fine grained soil.
- Direct Shear test - used to measure the peak (and potentially residual) shear strengths of a soil. When tested at varying confining loads can be used to find the shear strength parameters Phi' and c'*
- Triaxial testing - used to find the elastic properties of the soil (Young's Modulus and Poisson's Ratio) along with the shear strength. These may be either drained or undrained tests.
- Constant and falling head permeability tests - used to establish the hydraulic conductivity / coefficient of permeability for coarse and fine grained soils respectively.
*Note in the UK c' is assumed to be zero for design purposes, in other countries small non zero c' may be used.
