Good evening Everyone,

I have been working on the stability of ash ponds and specifically on the static liquefaction stability of settled slurry deposits. As part of the study, I have been doing static triaxial tests on loose samples at different RCs and confining pressures. However, the sample preparation and placement have given me quite some challenges.

I have been religiously following the recommendations of Been and Jefferies's textbook Appendix which talks about sample preparation. Hence, I have been using the moist tamping technique with on pedestal placement of the sample.

I am using a submersible load cell with a mechanical hard lock top cap, and this is where I am struggling. No matter how carefully I attached the load cell, there is always a deflection of about 2-3 mm (It is my judgment based on my experience of testing around 80 - 90 samples). On top of that, there is a deflection due to pre-saturation techniques which I cannot avoid.

Is there a meticulous way to avoid the above errors? Is mechanical hard lock better or suction top cap better? Is there any other method like water pluviation which can give a stable configuration of the sample?

I would love to hear any opinions regarding these questions. Thanks in advance.