COMPACTION
• Compaction - densification of soil at a constant water content.
o Shallow compaction - occurs beneath a surface-operated compactor
▪ Cohesive Soil Equipment – Sheep Foot Roller
▪ Cohesionless Soil Equipment – Drum Vibratory Roller & Plate Compactor
o Deep compaction - occurs surrounding a vibrator that penetrates the ground surface
• Standard Proctor Test – Most common test to evaluate the compaction characteristics of a soil.
o Maximum dry density / Unit weight
o Optimum moisture content
• Standard Proctor-Based Specification - used for fills that will not carry loads.
• Modified Proctor-Based Specification - used for fills that will carry loads.
• Relative Compaction - ratio of the in-place wet density of a soil to the maximum
wet density of the same soil using specific test method.
• Zero Air Voids (ZAV) - all voids are filled with water and S = 100%, making
further compaction impossible.
• ZAV-curve is:
o Saturation line is a hypothetical line.
o Points on the line denote density for completely saturated condition at respective water
contents.
o Maximum possible dry density for any soils.
o Impossible to achieve this density.
SHALLOW COMPACTION
▪ Rammer (tamper, jumping jack)
- motor driven that jumps and ram soil.
- work best with a thin lift (<100 mm) and with granular materials.
- Weigh 70 kg to 100 kg and plate size of 0.1sqm.
▪ Vibratory Plate Compactors
- Used for greater compaction effort, weigh 100 kg to 250 kg and has 0.4 sqm plate area
- Best for granular materials and suitable for some mixed materials
▪ Vibratory Smooth Drum Rollers
- Vibrates, combining static and dynamic forces to increase the efficiency of compaction.
- Compacting granular soils
▪ Sheepsfoot Roller
- Applies compaction stress to the soil from the tip of the spike.
- Best for semi-cohesive soils.
▪ Pneumatic Tired Compactors
- Considered as the universal compactor.
- Consist of an axle with several tires, side by side.
• Low-Energy Vibratory Compactors - Only effective with sandy materials and only to shallow depths.
RAPID COMPACTION
• Rapid Impact Compaction (RIC)
- Field compaction technique that compact soils up to about 7 m.
- Uses a modified, hydraulically operated, pile-driving hammer impacting a circular,
articulating plate.
o Watts and Charles (1993) – described it a 70 kN weight falling 1.2 m on to a 1.5 m ⌀ foot 40
blows/minute
o Serridge and Synac (2006) - Not effective in soil with excess pore pressure with higher
plasticity and clay content.
o Kristiansen and Davis (2004) - Successfully used RIC as a GIT for liquefaction
DEEP DYNAMIC COMPACTION
• Deep dynamic compaction (DDC)
- one of the oldest soil improvements, used by the Romans prior 100 AD and 1800s in US.
- A heavy weight is repeatedly lifted dropped from a height, impacting the ground surface.
o Louis Menard (1970s) - Modern application of DDC was developed
▪ Weights - Typically constructed to be durable by using steel plate, box-steel and
concrete.
▪ Dynamic compaction (DC) - used to compact loose unsaturated granular materials.
• Improves Strength and Soil Compressibility.
• Reduce void ratio
• Increase relative density.
▪ Disadvantages of Deep Dynamic Compaction
• Cannot be used 30 m from Buildings / 15 m from Underground Services
• Not Appropriate to Water Depth is <1.5 m
• Cannot be used when upper part of the soil is soft cohesive soils
• Not Effective when soil has >20% Fines
▪ Procedure of Dynamic Compaction
• 1st Phase: Compaction in deep layers - Treating the deepest layer
• 2nd Phase: Compaction of Intermediate layers - Treating the middle layer
• 3rd Phase: Compaction of surface layers - Treating the surface layer
• Roller Compaction Phase
o Grid Spacing = 3 – 7 Meters o Drop Height = 10 – 40 Meters
o Weights = 10 – 50 Tons o # of Drops = 5
• Depth of Treatment in Dynamic Compaction
- Effective Depth of Treatment to the Metric Energy Input Expression:
✓ Note : N is 0.5 for predominantly granular soil (Sandy soil).
