3.

Soil Compaction
 Soil Compaction
• Soil compaction is the process of increasing the density of soil
by packing the soil particles closer together with a reduction in
the volume of air; there is no significant change in the volume
of water.
• In compacted fills, loose soil is placed in layers ranging between
75 and 450 mm of thickness, each layer being compacted to a
specified standard by means of rollers, vibrators and rammers

Pneumatic rubber tired roller Smooth wheeled roller 2

• Soil compaction applies mechanical energy to densify or
stabilize soil hence can be referred to as a mechanical
stabilization technique.

• Granular soils (coarse-grained ) are efficiently compacted

using vibration techniques e.g vibrating plates, vibratory
rollers et.c. Rubber tired rollers and large free-falling
weights have also been applied to compact loose
granular fills.

• Fine- grained soils are compacted in the laboratory by

falling weights and hammers, special kneading
compactors and statically. In the field, they are
compacted by hand-operated tampers, sheep-foot
rollers, rubber-tired rollers and other heavy compaction
equipment.

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 Objectives of soil compaction
• Reduces detrimental settlement of structures built
on fill material
• Improve bearing capacity of pavement subgrade
• Control undesirable volume changes e.g. swelling
and shrinkage of soils
• Increase shear strength of soils- improves slope
stability
• Reduce permeability to minimize seepage through
earth dams
• Increases resistance to erosion
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• The degree of compaction of a soil measured in
terms of dry density, ρd i.e the mass f solids
only per unit volume of soil

• If the total density of soil is ρ and the moisture

content is w, dry density is:
ρd = ρ /(1+w)

ϒd = ϒ /(1+w)

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Dynamic compaction in the laboratory is usually
done using two tests:

• Standard Proctor test whose procedure is

standardized in ASTM D698-12

• Modified Proctor test, procedure standardized

in ASTM D1557-12

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 Standard and Modified Proctor
Standard Proctor Modified Proctor

Mass of hammer (kg) 2.5 4.5

Drop height (mm) 300 450
Number of layers 3 5
Number of blows per 25 25
layer

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Laboratory Compaction equipment

Fixed volume of soil in the mould 9

 Compaction of soil into the mould

Compaction pattern of soil into the mould

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Compaction is a function of :

• Dry density

• Water content

• Compaction energy

• Soil type

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 weight of hammer  height of fall  number of layers  number of blows per layer
Compactive energy 
volume of mould

Consider the standard Proctor test :

Mass of hammer  2.495 kg

Height of fall  304.88 mm
number of layers  3
number of blows per layer  25


(2.495kg) 9.81 m
s2 0.30488m   (3 layers)   25 blows


layer 
Compactive energy   592.7 kJ m 3
0.944  10 -3 m 3

Quiz: Compute the compactive energy for the modified Proctor

test
Procedure:

• Compact several samples of the same soil

• Vary moisture content for each sample
• Obtain wet density, ρ and moisture content, w
for each compacted sample
• Calculate the dry density, ρd from ρ and w
• Plot ρd against w
• From the graph, obtain the maximum dry
density ρd max and the optimum water content,
wopt

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14
• Plot of dry density, ρd vs water content, w is called
a compaction curve

• Each point on the compaction curve represents a

single compaction test

• The curve is UNIQUE for a given soil at a given

method of compaction and compactive effort.

• Maximum dry density is obtained the optimum

water content

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Standard and modified Proctor compaction curves for a deposit
(Crosby B till) 16
• Initially, starting at low water contents, as water
content increases, the particles become
“lubricated” and are easily re-oriented into a
denser configuration.

• Eventually, the water starts to replace the soil

particles, and since ρw<<ρs, the dry density curve
starts to drop.

• No matter how much water is added, the soil

never becomes fully saturated (not all the air
can be expelled)
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18
The Zero Air voids (ZAV) curve equation
Gs  w
d 
1  e

Gs w
eS r  Gs w ; e 
Sr

Gs  w Gs  w
d  or  d 
Gs w Gs w
1 1
Sr Sr

• The zero air voids curve (ZAV) can be obtained by substituting, Sr = 1

Note: No part of the compaction curve should lie to the right of the ZAV
curve
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Air voids content, Ar

• The proportion of air present in a soil element

can be expressed in terms of air voids content,

Va
Ar 
V
Va Vv  Vw Vv  Vw 
  1  
V V V  Vv 
Ar  n1  S r  0 A nr
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V  Va  Vs  Vw
 Va  Ms Mw Ms  Mw 
V 1      1  Gs 
 V  Gs  w  w G s  w  Ms 
 Va 
Gs 1  
Ms  V
 w
V  Mw 
1  Gs 
 Ms 
Gs 1  Ar 
d  w
1  Gs w
This is the ρd equation in terms of Ar

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Compaction curves for eight soils (After Johnson and Sallberg, 1960). 23
Class quiz:
Typical results from a standard proctor test are
given in the table below.
Water content, % 6.2 8.1 9.8 11.5 12.3 13.2
Bulk unit weight, 16.9 18.7 19.5 20.5 20.4 20.1
kN/m3

Plot the compaction curve. Determine the

optimum moisture content and the maximum dry
density
Include the zero air voids curve and the line of
optimums on the plot.
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Compaction quality control
• A geotechnical engineer needs to check that field compaction
meets specifications.
• Common procedures are used to check the amount of
compaction achieved in the field are either destructive or non-
destructive.
The destructive techniques are:
- sand cone (sand replacement method)
- the balloon
- oil (or water) method

Non-destructive techniques are:

- nuclear density meters

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Compaction quality control
A systematic exercise in which one checks at regular intervals to establish whether
the field compaction was done according to specifications

Field density tests may be carried out to establish the standard of compaction
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Some in-place destructive techniques for determining density in the field
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Problems associated with field density tests:
• Statistical quality control of compaction: It id difficult and expensive to conduct a
sufficient number of tests for proper statistical analysis. This is especially difficult if
the destructive methods of testing (field density) are used. Besides only a small
portion of the fill is assessed for density. One possible solution is to use non-
destructive tests
• Presence of oversize particles: Presence of significant gravels and cobbles in the fill
material presents serious challenge in laboratory tests. Consequently, laboratory
testing restricts the amount of oversize particles permitted.
• Lack of knowledge of the laboratory standard test: It is desirable to have a complete
laboratory standard test corresponding to each field test but this is time consuming
and expensive. In highways engineering, it is common that representative samples of
the borrow pit material are compacted to develop representative compaction curves.
If the borrow pit material is highly variable, this would be a poor procedure.
• Time required to determine field water contents (for destructive tests)
• Incorrect determination of the volume of the excavated hole (destructive tests)
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 Further reading
1. What is over compaction? And why is it
significant?
2. Compare the soil compacted dry of optimum
and wet of optimum in terms of: soil
structure, swelling, shrinkage, permeability
and shear strength.

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 Granular soils
• As a result of finer material occupying void space between
coarser particles, well graded soils achieve denser packing
than uniform soils.
• The range of void ratio and porosity commonly found in
granular soils are limited by the state of packing of the
grains.
• The loosest state corresponds to the maximum void space
(maximum void ratio, emax) while the densest state
corresponds to the minimum void space (minimum void
ratio, emin)
• In order to know the state of packing of a granular soil in its
natural state, the in situ void ratio, e is compared with the
emax and emin of the soil numerically in terms of the relative
density, Dr of the soil deposit
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 emax  e
Dr 
emax  emin
emax and emin are measurable in the laboratory.

Dr is commonly expressed as a percentage.

When sand presents

r Dr < 30%, it is regarded loose.
If 30<Dr<70%, it is regarded medium dense.
And for Dr > 70%, the sand is regarded dense.

Relative density, Dr is sometimes referred to as density index,

ID
Question: Express relative density in terms of dry
densities 31
Extra notes: Excavation, grading and compacted
fills
• Most civil engineering projects involve
earthworks which is the process of changing
the configuration of the ground surface. The
final configuration as described on a new
topographic map is called a grading plan
• When rock or soil is removed, we have made
a cut or excavation. When it is added, we
have made a fill or embankment

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 A deep cut made for
construction of a highway

A cut and fill to create level

pad for various constructions
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• An important consideration in earthworks, is that
they should not produce slope stability problems
especially in hilly or mountainous areas.
• As discussed earlier, fills must have sufficient shear
strength and stiffness and these requirements
should be fulfilled even when the fills become wet
• Some fills such as the core of earth dams or liners
of sanitary landfills must have sufficiently low
hydraulic conductivity to restrict flow of water yet
aggregate base material below pavements must
have high hydraulic conductivity to ensure water
drains away from critical areas. (Different fills have
different requirements)
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Conventional earthworks: excavation, transport,
placement and compaction
Sometimes it is necessary to obtain fill material
from offsite borrow pits from which suitable
material is imported.
Sometimes is a cut and fill balance with no need
for importation.
Once soil arrives in the area to be filled, it must
be laid out in thin horizontal lifts, typically 200
mm. Each lift must be moisture conditioned
(adding or removing moisture) and compacted
before adding the next lift.
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Some earth moving equipment 36