Testing services
The Lab provides high-level expertise, equipment and facilities related to geotechnical testing, aiming at supporting both engineering design and research.
Among others, its activities include:
– laboratory tests on natural and reconstituted samples, executed in accordance with national and international standards and accompanied by official certificate reporting results: identification and classification of soils, mechanical testing (oedometric, triaxial, direct shear, ring shear), hydraulic testing (permeability, water retention curve);
– design of non-standard apparatuses and test procedures (with dedicated data acquisition system) to meet the needs of any special application, also accompanied by official certificates or test reports with experimental data;
– execution of tests for mechanical and hydraulic characterization of geotextile reinforced soils, soils treated with waterproofing mixtures or expanding resins;
– design, development and set-up of small and medium-scale models for the understanding of complex geotechnical and environmental system (p.e. foundations and slopes, earthworks, groundwater pumping systems in urban and non-urban areas);
– the complete development of in situ monitoring programs.
The described skills in testing geomaterials (soil and rock) may also be extended to other types of porous aggregates.