CIVL6028 Ground Improvement

Soil Compaction

Dr. Fiona Kwok

Room 6-32, Haking Wong Building
The University of Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2859 2655
Email: fiona.kwok@hku.hk
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Compaction 0 great

air voids
Packing
— Compaction is a process of increasing the density of
a soil by packing the particles closer together with
a reduction in __________________.

Water content
— There is usually no change in ______________.
 density
dry
— The degree of compaction is measured
by ______________ and depends on the water
content and compactive effort (weight of hammer,
number of impacts, weight of roller, number of
passes).

— For a given compactive effort, the maximum dry

unit weight (max γd) occurs at an optimum water
content (wopt).
Principle of Soil Compaction

How is it different from consolidation?

reduce
water
Compaction purposes and processes
dry dubs
— Compaction is a process of increasing soil ______
and removing ____, usually by mechanical means.
air
— Purposeful compaction is intended to improve the
_________ and ________ of soil.
perph stiffness
permeability
— The size of the individual soil particles does
not change, neither is water removed.

— Consequential (or accidental) compaction, and

thus settlement, can occur due to vibration (piling,
traffic, etc.) or self-weight of loose fill.
 well graded
year
clay
Objectives of compaction Sport
— Compaction can be applied to improve the
properties of an existing soil or in the process of
placing fill.
— The main objectives are to:
— increase shear strength and therefore bearing
capacity
— increase stiffness and therefore reduce future
settlement
— decrease voids ratio and so permeability, thus
reducing potential frost heave
Factors affecting compaction
— A number of factors will affect the degree of
compaction that can be achieved:
— Nature and type of soil, i.e. sand or clay,
grading, plasticity
— Water content at the time of compaction
— Site conditions, e.g. weather, type of site,
layer thickness
— Compactive effort: type of plant (weight,
vibration, number of passes)
Laboratory compaction tests
— The variation in compaction with water content and
compactive effort is determined by the Proctor test.
— Target values are then specified for the dry density and/or
air-voids content to be achieved on site.

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Dimensions and parts of a standard
compaction mold
Sequence of blows using hand rammer
Soil in Mould after compaction
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Standard proctor test BS 1377 (Part 4)
— A soil sample (with all particles larger than 20mm
removed) is compacted into a 1000 cm3 mold in 3 layers by
27 hammer blows on each layer.
— The hammer has a mass of 2.5 kg and is dropped 300 mm.
— During the test, data is collected:
1. Volume of mould (V)
2. Mass of mould (Mo)
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3. Specific gravity of the soil grain (Gs)
4. Mass of mould + compacted soil - for each sample (M)
5. Water content of each sample (w)
— This procedure is repeated at least 5 times for various water
contents.
— The dry densities are calculated (rd) for samples with
different values of water content, then rd - w curve is plotted
together with the air-voids curves.
Modified proctor test
— The mould is the same as is used in the
proctor test but the rammer consists of a 4.5-kg
mass falling 450 mm.
— The soil (with all particles larger than 20mm
removed) is compacted in five layers,
— Each layer receiving 27 blows with the rammer.

— Why a modified proctor test is developed?

Vibrating hammer test
— The soil (with all particles larger than 37.5mm
removed) is compacted in three layers in a 2.3
L mould

— using a circular tamper fitted in the vibrating

hammer

— Each layer being compacted for a period of 60 s.

— More effective for larger particles

Dry-density/water-content relationship
— The aim of the compaction test is to establish the
maximum dry density that may be attained for a given
soil with a standard amount of compactive effort.

— When a series of samples of a soil are compacted at

different water content the plot usually shows a distinct
peak.

— The curve is drawn with axes of dry density and water

content and the controlling values are values read off:
rd(max) = maximum dry density
wopt = optimum water content
Calculated densities and density curve
— The expressions used are: = and =
— The maximum dry density occurs at an optimum water
content

Bulk density,
1.84 2.00 2.10 2.12 2.09 2.05
r (Mg/m³)
E
Water
0.084 0.106 0.129 0.144 0.166 0.186
content, w
Dry density,
1.70 1.81 1.86 1.851 1.79 1.73
rd (Mg/m³)
 Explanation of the shape of the curve
— For clays
Recently excavated and generally saturated lumps of clayey soil have a
relatively high undrained shear strength at low water contents and are
difficult to compact. As water content increases, the lumps weaken and
soften and maybe compacted more easily.
— For coarse soils
The material is unsaturated and derives strength from suction in pore water
which collects at grain contacts. As the water content increases, suctions,
and hence effective stresses decrease. The soil weaken and is therefore
more easily compacted.
— For both
At relatively high water contents, the compacted soil is nearly saturated
(nearly all of the air has been removed) and so the compactive effort is in
effect applying undrained loading and so the void volume does not
decrease; as the water content increases the compacted density achieved
will decrease, with the air content remaining almost constant.
Explanation of the shape of the curve

— At low values of water content, most soils tend to be

stiff and are difficult to compact.

— As the water content is increased the soil becomes

more workable, facilitating compaction and resulting
in higher dry densities.

— At high water contents, however, the dry density

decreases with increasing water content, an
increasing proportion of the soil volume being
occupied by water.
Dry density and air-voids content
— A fully saturated soil has zero air content.
— In practice, even quite wet soil will have a small air content

— Air-voids content, =
Gsw
— The maximum dry density is controlled by both the water
b
content and the air-voids content.
— Curves for different air-voids contents can be added to the
rd - w plot using this expression:
— = (1 − )
Pa
 w solid
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— The air-voids content corresponding to the maximum dry

189
density and optimum water content can be read off the rd/w
plot or calculated from the expression.
— These curves enable the air content at any point on the
experimental dry density-water content curve to be determined
by inspection.
 Air-voids curves
The expression used is: Water content (%) 10 12 14 16 18 20
rd when Av = 0% 2.13 2.04 1.96 1.89 1.82 1.75
rd when Av = 5% 2.02 1.94 1.86 1.79 1.73 1.67
= (1 − )
1+ rd when Av = 10% 1.91 1.84 1.76 1.70 1.64 1.58

Modified and
The optimum air-voids
content is the value
corresponding to the remove
maximum dry density
(1.86 Mg/m³) and
optimum water content
(12.9%).
Second
1.86
(1 + 0.129 2.7) benchmark
( ) = 1 − 2.7 1
= 0.071 (7.1%)
Effect of increased compactive effort
wet
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— The compactive effort will be greater when using a heavier roller on
in
site or a heavier rammer in the laboratory.
— The curve for the 4.5 kg test is situated above and to the left of the day
curve for the 2.5 kg test.
— With greater compactive effort:
— maximum dry density increases have
— optimum water content decreases
— air-voids content remains almost the same.
pumping
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Different curves are obtained for different
compactive efforts
 Effect of soil type

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to water content
— Well-graded granular soils can be compacted to higher densities than
uniform or silty soils.
— Clays of high plasticity may have water contents over 30% and
achieve similar densities (and therefore strengths) to those of lower
plasticity with water contents below 20%.
— As the % of fines and the plasticity of a soil increases, the compaction
curve becomes flatter and therefore less sensitive to moisture content.
Typical values of optimum moisture content
and suggested relative compactions
Compaction as a construction process
— Compaction is employed in the construction of road
bases, runways, earth dams, embankments and
reinforced earth walls.

— In some cases, compaction may be used to prepare a

level surface for building construction.

— Soil is placed in layers, typically 75 mm to 450 mm thick.

— Each layer is compacted to a specified standard using

rollers, vibrators or rammers.
Specification and quality control
— The results of laboratory compaction tests are not
directly application to field compaction because the
compactive efforts in the lab are different from those
produced by field equipment.
— The degree of compaction achievable on site
depends mainly on:
— Compactive effort: type of plant + No of passes
— Water content: can be increased if dry, but not vice-
versa
— Type of soil: higher densities with well-graded soils; fine
soils have higher water contents
— End-result specifications require predictable
conditions
— Method specifications are preferred in UK.
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End-result specifications emas

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— Target parameters are specified based on laboratory test results:

— = I
9ft related
— Optimum water content working range, i.e. ± 2%
Optimum air-voids content tolerance, i.e. ± 1.5%
of
t.ie
— For soils wetter than wopt, the target Av can be used, e.g. 10% for
bulk earthworks, 5% for important work hi
— The end-result method is unsuitable for very wet or variable
conditions.

—
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Is the relative compaction directly proportional to the compaction
effort?

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Field tests of soil unit weight
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Method specifications
— A site procedure is specified giving:
— type of plant and its mass
— maximum layer thickness and number of passes
— maximum allowable size of material

— This type of specification is more suitable for soils

wetter than wopt or where site conditions are variable
- this is often the case in the UK.

accurate
SRT is more
Applicability of various types of
compaction equipment for different soil
types
Effect of surface compaction

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removed
Compaction Equipment

Rollers Vibrators Rammers

Dead loads are added to Range from hand-guided Hand-guided pneumatic
give masses of 12-40 machines to larger roller tamper
tonnes. combinations
Suitable for: most coarse Suitable for: most soils Suitable for: trench back-
and fine soils. with low to moderate fill; work in confined
fines content areas
Unsuitable for: very soft Unsuitable for: large Unsuitable for: large
clay; highly variable volume work; wet clayey volume work
soils. soils.
 Smooth-wheeled roller

— These consist of hollow steel drums, the mass of which can be

increased by water or sand ballast.
— A smooth surface is produced on the compacted layer,
encouraging the run-off of any rainfall but resulting in relatively
poor bonding between successive layers; the fill as a whole
will therefore tend to be laminated
— Self-propelled or towed steel rollers ranging from 2 - 20 tonnes
— Suitable for: well-graded sands and gravels; silts and clays of
low plasticity
— Unsuitable for: uniform sands; silty sands; soft clays
Pneumatic-tyred roller

— Wheels are mounted close together on tow axles, the rear set
overlapping the lines of the front set to ensure complete
coverage of the soil surface.
— Usually a container on two axles, with rubber-tyred wheels.
— Wheels aligned to give a full-width rolled track.
— Dead loads are added to give masses of 12-40 tonnes.
— Suitable for: most coarse and fine soils.
— Unsuitable for: very soft clay; highly variable soils.
Sheepsfoot (tamping) roller

— Consists of hollow steel drums with numerous tapered or club-shaped feet

projecting from their surface.
— Initially, when the layer of soil is loose, the drums are in contact with the soil
surface.
— Subsequently, as the projecting feet compact below the surface and the soil
becomes sufficiently dense to support the high contact pressure, the drums rise
above the soil.
— The action of the feet causes significant mixing of the soil, improving its degree
of homogeneity and will break up lumps of stiff material.
— Due to the penetraction of the feet, excellent boning is produced between
successive soil layers – an important requirement of water-retaining earthworks.
— Mass range from 5-8 tonnes
— Suitable for: fine grained soils; sands and gravels, with >20% fines
— Unsuitable for: very coarse soils; uniform gravels
Grid roller

— These rollers have a surface consisting of a network of steel

bards forming a grid with square holes.
— They provide high contact pressure but little kneading action.
— Towed units with rolls of 30-50 mm bars, with spaces between
of 90-100 mm
— Masses range from 5-12 tonnes
— Suitable for: well-graded sands; soft rocks; stony soils with fine
fractions
— Unsuitable for: uniform sands; silty sands; very soft clays
Vibrating plate

— Consists of a steel plate with upturned edges, or a curved

plate, on which a vibrator is mounted.
— Range from hand-guided machines to larger roller
combinations
— Suitable for: most soils with low to moderate fines content
— Unsuitable for: large volume work; wet clayey soils
Power rammer

— Also called a 'trench tamper'

— Hand-guided pneumatic tamper
— Suitable for: trench back-fill; work in confined areas
— Unsuitable for: large volume work
Moisture condition value (MCV)
— This is a procedure developed by the Road Research
Laboratory using only one sample, thus making laboratory
compaction testing quicker and simpler.
— A rapid assessment to be made of the suitability of soils for
use as fill materials.
— The test does not involve the determination of water content.
— In principle, the test consists of determining the effort required
to compact a soil sample close to its maximum density.
— Soil placed in a mould is compacted by blows from a rammer
dropping 250 mm; the penetration after each blow is
measured.
Apparatus and sizes
— Cylindrical mould, with permeable base plate: internal
diameter = 100 mm, internal height at least 200 mm
— Rammer, with a flat face: face diam = 97 mm, mass = 7.5 kg,
free-fall height = 250 mm
— Soil: 1.5 kg passing a 20 mm mesh sieve
Test procedure and plot
— Firstly, the rammer is lowered on to the soil surface and
allowed to penetrate under its own weight
— The rammer is then set to a height of 250 mm and dropped on
to the soil
— The penetration is measured to 0.1 mm
— The rammer height is reset to 250 mm and the drop repeated
until no further penetration occurs, or until 256 drops have
occurred
— For a given number of blows (n), the penetration is subtracted
from the penetration at four times that number of blows (4n).
— The change in penetration (Dp) between n and 4n blows is
plotted against the log of the lesser number of blows (n).
— A change in penetration of 5 mm is arbitrarily chosen to
represent the condition beyond which no significant increase
in density occurs.
— The moisture condition value (MCV) is defined as 10 times
the logarithm of the number of blows corresponding to a
change in penetration of 5 mm on the plot.
Example plot and determination of MCV
rn
1st b 1 254 64
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4th b Plots
1 22mm
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— After plotting Dp against the number of blows n, a line is drawn
through the steepest part.
— The intercept of this line and the 5 mm penetration line give the MCV
— The defining equation is: MCV = 10 log B
(where B = number of blows corresponding to 5 mm penetration=20)
— On the example plot here an MCV of 13 is indicated.
Significance of MCV in earthworks
— The MCV test is rapid and gives reproducible results
which correlate well with engineering properties.
— The relationship between MCV and water content for a
soil is near to a straight line, except for heavily
overconsolidated clays.
— A desired value of undrained strength or compressibility
can be related to limiting water content, and so the MCV
can be used as a control value after calibrating MCV vs w
for the soil.
— An approximate correlation between MCV and undrained
shear strength (Su) has been suggested by Parsons
(1981).
— Log su = 0.75 + 0.11(MCV)
 Worked example 1
— The results of a Standard Compaction test are shown in the table
below:
Sad lower who

0
w (%) 6.2 8.1 9.8 11.5 12.3 13.2
γ (kN/m3) 16.9 18.7 19.5 20.5 20.4 20.1

= 15.9 17.3 17.8 18.4 18.2 17.8

1+

a) Determine the maximum dry unit weight and the OMC.

b) What is the dry unit weight and moisture range at 95% RC
(Relative Compaction)?
17.5 p 5 13.15
c) Determine the degree of saturation at the maximum dry density if
Gs = 2.70.
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Worked Example 2
Modified Proctor compaction test is performed on a clayey gravel
road base. The solids have a specific gravity of 2.65. The
compaction data yielded the following binomial values for γd/γw
versus w %:
w (%) 3.00 4.45 5.85 6.95 8.05 9.46 9.90
1.94 2.01 2.06 2.09 2.08 2.06 2.05

7.7
a) Find the γd max and the OMC from the compaction curve;
b) The volume of water that must be added to obtain 1 cubic
meter of soil at the maximum density, if the soil was originally at
3% water content.

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W Ws two 19.4 19.4 306
For 1m
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Worked example 3
— A Procter test using a 0.9443 L mold is performed on a
sample of soil.
dry
by m

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1991.1N
1937.7
1089.4
— If 0.00091 m3 of compacted soil tested at a construction
site had a mass of 1.755 kg wet and 1.696 kg dry, what is
the percentage of compaction?
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