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Soil Test For Road Construction
Soil Test For Road Construction
Soil Test For Road Construction
The common soil test for road construction includes classification of soil,
particle size distribution, moisture content determination, specific gravity,
liquid limit and plastic limit tests. Moisture content, particle size and specific
gravity tests on soils are used for the calculation of soil properties such as
degree of saturation.
The soil tests can be laboratory tests or in-situ tests. The laboratory tests
should be carried out on every sample taken for determination of particle
size and moisture content.
Specific gravity of soil is the ratio of the weight of soil in air of a given
volume at a standard temperature to the weight in air of an equal volume of
distilled water at the same stated temperature. This test is also carried out
in laboratory.
This test determines the particle size distribution of soil from the coarse sand
size down to fine clay size. The data from particle size distribution test is
used to determine suitability of soil for road construction, air field etc. This
test can also be used to predict soil water movement although permeability
tests are more generally used.
This soil compaction test also called as Proctor test is used for the
determination of the mass of dry soil per cubic metre when the soil is
compacted over a range of moisture contents, giving the maximum dry
density at optimum moisture content. Thus this test provides the compaction
characteristics of different soils with change in moisture content. This is
achieved by densification of soil by reducing the air voids.
The degree of is measured in terms of its dry density of soil. The dry density
is maximum at the optimum water content.
California Bearing Ratio (CBR) Test
The CBR test is used for the evaluation of subgrade strength of roads and
pavements. The CBR value obtained by this test is used with the empirical
curves to determine the thickness of pavement and its component layers.
This is the most widely used method for the design of flexible pavement.
Following points should be taken care of while soil testing for road
construction: