Electrical Resistivity of Tropical Peat   Afshin Asadi Department of Civil Engineering, University Putra Malaysia Serdang, Selangor 43400 e-mail: Afshin.Asadi@yahoo.com Bujang B.K. Huat Department of Civil Engineering, University Putra Malaysia Serdang, Selangor 43400 e-mail: bujang@eng.upm.edu.my
			ABSTRACT

Peat represents the extreme form of soft soil. Using electroosmotic techniques to improve the peat entails evaluating electrical properties of the soil. Electrical resistivity and conductivity of peat soil regarding to its pore fluid, organic content, temperature, and degree of humification were investigated to conceptualize electroosmotic phenomena. The results of the study revealed that the electrical resistivity of the peat decreased as the water content or the temperature increased. The resistivity of the humified peat was lower than the unhumified peat, meaning a higher degree of peat decomposition resulted in a lower peat resistivity. The study showed that the resistivity of peat increased as the organic content increased. The electrical conductivity of the humified peat was higher than the electrical conductivity of the unhumified peat. The electrical conductivity of peat decreased as the organic content increased. The study thus far showed that a highly decomposed peat could be a better candidate for using electroosmotic techniques in comparison with unhumified peat.

Keywords: Peat, conductivity, electro-osmosis, humification, resistivity

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