Soil Engineering Testing Inc

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SET is a soil mechanics laboratory testing firm. We are owned and operated by an engineer, paraprofessional engineers and certified technicians. We have a combined engineering and soil testing experience of over 125 years.

SET's primary function is laboratory soils testing for geotechnical engineering consultants, civil and environmental consultants; also for government agencies, contractors, private firms and homeowners. We have also done a considerable amount of strength testing(triaxial, dss, etc.) for the mining industry. The projects we have worked on have involved an extensive use of the SHANSEP method on fine tailings. For all our projects we provide quality geotechnical lab testing in a timely manner.

Direct Simple Shear (DSS) ASTM D6528
Triaxial Testing and Constant Rate of Consolidation (CRS) Testing

All Tests are performed in general accordance with current accepted procedures in the field of soil mechanics laboratory testing, including procedures given under ASTM, AASHTO and Corps of Engineers Manual 1110-2-1906. Test are performed by or under direct supervision of a NICET certified technician. Testing services available for soft bedrock. Shallow field testing and sampling equipment available.

* We are actively involved with ASTM committee D-18 and it's many subcommittees, keeping us current with changes of existing standards and proposed new standards.

Our projects extend far from our home in Minnesota. We have an extensive working experience with a variety of soils from the following states and countries: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, IL, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY; We've also done work with Canadian soils.

In continuing our constant effort to continually upgrade and expand our testing equipment, Soil Engineering Testing, Inc has purchase several new pieces of lab equipment.

A Direct Simple Shear machine or DSS uses a reinforced membrane and a fixed normal load application to maintain constant volume throughout shearing of the specimen. This creates an undrained state on the specimen. DSS results are often helpful in slope stability problems. The full testing procedure for the direct simple shear is available in the standard ASTM D6528.

A Thermal Resistivity Probe measures the soils resistance to heat transport. The soil thermal resistivity is important in determination of cable ratings when burying power cables. This information is commonly used in wind farms. The thermal resistivity probe also reads the thermal conductivity of a soil, which is simply the inverse of the soil's thermal resisitivity. Thermal conductivity properties are often needed in construction of geothermal heatpumps. Testing procedural information is available in the following standards: ASTM D5334 and IEEE 442.
CBR testing has been added to our list of services. We have increased our capacity for running CBRs to 15 specimens. The California Bearing Ratio test is usually run in conjunction with a standard proctor test. The CBR test requires a 4 day soaking period, generally we are able to provide a week for a turn around time. We run our CBR test in general accordance with ASTM:D1883.
Fully Automated Stress Path Triaxial Testing. We have 2 fully automated triaxial load frames that not only allow us to run standard triaxial testing (Consolidated Undrained [CU], Consolidated Drained [CD], and Unconsolidated Undrained [UU]), but also provide Stress Path Testing complete with Ko consolidation. Combining our latest load frame with a constant rate of consolidation test chamber provides our clients with a CRS consolidation test.

If you are interested in either of these tests please call or email us. We would be happy to meet all of your testing needs.