San &

ELS EV I ER Soil & Tillage Research 31 (1994) 277-282

Short Communication
Computerized determination of the preconsolidation
stress in compaction testing of field core samples
J.B. D a w i d o w s k i a, A.J. K o o l e n *'b
"Department of Agricultural Engineering, Szczecin Agricultural University, Szczecin, Poland
bDepartment of Soil Tillage, WageningenAgricultural University, Diedenweg20,
6 703 G W Wageningen, Netherlands
(Accepted 6 October 1993 )

Abstract

The method developed by Casagrande to determine a preconsolidation stress from con-

solidation test results is widely used when a stress threshold value is to be determined from
the results of a uniaxial compression test on unsaturated, structured, soil. This paper de-
scribes how this graphical method was transformed into a computer method using Lotus
123. Application to samples from a tractor rut showed ageing effects and effect of speed in
the uniaxial compression tests.

Keywords: Preconsolidation stress, Casagrande's determination; Unsaturated soil, computerized

determination; Threshold stress

1. Introduction

When a soil has been compacted by field traffic or has settled owing to natural
causes, such as rain or an overburden, a threshold stress is believed to exist such
that loadings inducing smaller stresses than this threshold cause little additional
compaction, and loadings inducing greater stresses cause much additional com-
paction. Koolen and Kuipers (1989) have listed a number of published threshold
values, and discussed whether such values are real thresholds against further
compaction. Probably they are in the case of non-sandy materials, but not in the
case of disturbed sands. Recently, Horn and Lebert ( 1992 ) measured thresholds
of forest soils before and after deep tillage. In the literature, various names are

*Corresponding author.

0167-1987/94/$07.00 © 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

SSDIOI67-1987(93)OO374-A
278 J.B. Dawidowski, A.J. Koolen ~Soil & Tillage Research 31 (1994) 277-282

used for this threshold--preconsolidation stress (which originated in civil engi-

neering), precompaction stress and preload. Koolen and Kuipers (1989) used
'equivalent precompaction stress' because soil strength may have changed after a
vehicle-induced compaction, owing to such factors as wetting, drying and set-
tling. The importance of compaction threshold values is increasing. In capital-
intensive arable farming, tyre inflation pressures that are low enough to prevent
tyres from forming permanent ruts on firm ploughed land are within reach. Zero
rut depths are more the case than the exception in grassland farming. In restora-
tion of natural habitats, topsoil disturbance is often not desired because this would
initiate an additional release of nutrients and a change towards less valuable plant
species.
Casagrande's method (Casagrande, 1936) for determining graphically a
threshold value from uniaxial compression test results is widely accepted. Fig. 1
demonstrates the method starting from a semi-log plot of such results: 'One de-
termines first the position of the virgin compression line (I) with a sufficient
number of points. Then one determines on the preceding branch (II) that point
(T) which corresponds to the smallest radius of curvature, and draws through
this point a tangent (t) to the curve, and a horizontal line (h). The angle between
these two lines is then bisected, and the point of intersection (C) of this bisecting
line (c) with the virgin line (I) determined. Point (C) corresponds approxi-
mately to the preconsolidation load (P o) of the soil in the ground.' (Casagrande,
1936). This civil engineering quantity is very similar to the threshold value in
compaction testing of core samples from unsaturated, structured field soils.
We applied Casagrande's method in the electronic processing of stored data on

1.10

1.02

0.94
g

0.8t5

0.78

0.70 , , 2",,
1.40 1.72 2.04. Do 2.36 2.68 3.00

log(stresa) [kPa]

Fig. 1. Casagrande's graphical method to determine preconsolidation stress. Application to computer

processing of results from the uniaxial compression of an unsaturated topsoil sample.
 J.B. Dawidowski, A.J. Koolen ~Soil & Tillage Research 31 (1994) 277-282 279

uniaxial compression testing of undisturbed soil samples (height 5 cm, diameter

8 cm) with a computer-controlled universal compression testing machine. This
machine (Zwick 1455, Ulm, Germany ) is mechanically driven at a constant speed.
Compaction force and displacement from a reference height are measured at a
frequency of 32 Hz. When the compaction speed is 100 m m m i n - 1and the largest
sample compression is 2 cm, the measurement result consists of 384 pairs of force-
displacement readings. These data pairs are stored so that they can be transferred
to a Lotus spreadsheet at any time after testing, for combination with data on
gravimetric sample water content, volume of solids in the sample and sample
dimensions, and to transfer the force-displacement data pairs into log stress-
void ratio data pairs.
In applying Casagrande's method to these data pairs within the spreadsheet a
number of problems have to be solved: the number of data pairs needs to be
reduced when it is judged that intervals between successive readings are smaller
than needed (smaller intervals give rise to longer processing times); filtering is
needed, to cope with the ever-present small fluctuations in the experimental re-
sults; determination of the data pair for which the smallest radius of curvature in
the semi-log plot occurs is necessary; determination of algebraic expressions for
the upward extension of the semi-log virgin curve part, the bisector and the stress
value where both lines intersect is necessary.

2. S o l u t i o n s in the s p r e a d s h e e t

2. I. Data reduction
If desired, a reduced, new, set of void ratio-loga data pairs (cj, dj) can be de-
rived from the original void ratio-loga pairs (ai, bi) by
1
cj=~(a2j_l +a2j) ~=l(b2j_, + bzj) (1)
Z

2.2. Data filtering

The void ratio-logtr data pairs (cj, 4 ) can be smoothed by replacing each (cj,
c/j) by
1 N 1 N
fJ=-2N+ lk__~_Ncj+k gJ=2N+ lk=~_U4+k (2)
Usually we used N = 1.

2.3. Determination of smallest radius of curvature

First finite divided differences (FD) are calculated from void ratio-loga data
pairs ~ , g~) as
280 J.B. DawidowskLA.J. Koolen /Soil & TillageResearch 31 (1994) 277-282

f,+m - f /
FDj- " - - (3)
gi+l --gi
Second differences (SD) are then calculated as
SDj=FDj+ I - F D j (4)
The smallest radius of curvature of the void ratio-loga relationship occurs at the
stress value at which SDj is at a minimum (negative): at. The corresponding void
ratio is referred to as er. It may be necessary to apply a data filtering procedure
to the SDj values one or more times to eliminate possible fluctuations.

2.4. Determination o f bisector

We defined the bisector as

e - er - 1FDr (5)
log tr--log trr 2
where FDr is the tangent modulus of the filtered e-loga relationship in (trr, er).

2.5. Extension o f the virgin curve

We also used the filtered (e, loga) data to determine the (e, loga) pair (ev,
logav) where the absolute value of SD is at a minimum. We defined an extension
of the virgin semi-log curve as
e-ev
=FDv (6)
log it--log av
where FDv is calculated as a mean of five neighbouring values:
1
FD~ =~(FDv_2 +FDv_ ~+FDv +FDv+I +FDv+2) (7)

2.6. Threshold stress

The stress ordinate of the point of intersection of the bisector and the extension
of the virgin curve is an estimate of the threshold stress.

3. Results for tractor wheel rut on freshly cultivated soil

The above procedures have been applied to a series of samples that were taken
from the rut of a tractor rear wheel formed in soil that was freshly cultivated by a
tine cultivator to a depth of 20 cm. Vertical wheel load was 12 kN and tyre infla-
tion pressure was 1 bar. The soil was a Wageningen silty clay loam. To avoid
 J.B. Dawidowski, A.J. Koolen ~Soil & Tillage Research 31 (1994) 277-282 281

0.60

--- after data reduction, before fllterpng

after data reduction and filtering !1~ T

ii ~1 r~
Ih
-- 036 II

~ II II II
II
~ o.~2 r I II Ii II rl "LI

-o.12 , .... ,?_...~ ,/_~~ , d ~ L i !p~j-~l~

~//
""
i
,
mr ~ I
, , ~ ,kl i I
m I I I ~1 tl
Ii ~l
I~ ~,1
II
II
I~
il

m -0.36 tilt i II
I! ii

il
-0.60 I I I I
120 1.56 192 22B 264 300

Iog(lltreals) [kPa]

Fig. 2. Relationship between log(stress) values and second difference ( E - 1 = 0.1 ) of void ratio val-
ues, calculated from the results of a uniaxial compression test.

Table !
Results of uniaxial compression testing of undisturbed field samples for two times of testing and two
compression speeds

3 h after sampling 300 h after sampling;

200 m m m i n -

200 m m m i n - ~ 400 m m m i n - Average SD

Average SD Average SD

Water content (g 100g -~) 22.3 0.9 23.0 1.3 21.2 0.7
Precompaction stress trr (kPa) 98 21 143 38 140 14
Compression at trr ( m m ) 2.29 0.23 2.75 0.59 2.03 0.47
Void ratio erat trr 0.99 0.06 0.90 0.08 0.95 0.05
Porosity nrat trr (%, m 3 m -3) 49.8 1.4 47.2 2.2 48.7 1.3
Initial porosity (%, m 3 m -3) 52.1 1.5 50.1 2.3 50.7 1.4
Final porosity (%, m 3 m -3) 39.3 0.4 39.4 0.7 39.9 0.7

interaction with front-wheel effects, the tractor was steered to make a bend. Soil
samples were taken at the centre of the rut, between lug prints, from 3 to 10 cm
depth. Sampling used metal rings (height 5 cm, inner diameter 8 cm, wall thick-
ness 1.7 m m ) with a cutting edge at the lower side. Uniaxial compression testing
was performed in the laboratory at two compression speeds (200 and 400 mm
m i n - ~) and with two time periods between tractor rut formation and compres-
sion testing (3 h and 300 h). Figs. 1 and 2 present results from one sample. The
282 J.B. Dawidowski, A.J. Koolen ~Soil & Tillage Research 31 (1994) 277-282

SD-logtr relationship, which is not filtered, does not show a clear extreme value
of SD; therefore no (o'r, er) pair can be identified (Fig. 2 ). After filtering the (e,
logtr) data pairs and, subsequently, also the values of the SD, the trend in the
change of SD becomes clearer (Fig. 2). This approach allows identification of
(trr, er) and (av, ev). Fig. 1 is a graph of the solution, showing the e-logtr curve,
the tangent line through (trr, er), the bisecting line, the extension of the semi-log
virgin curve and the intersection point giving a threshold estimate.
According to our experience with the testing procedure described, the follow-
ing procedures may be used for data reduction and filtering: reduction of void
ratio-logtr data pairs; filtering of the reduced void ratio-logtr data pairs; filtering
of the SD-logtr data pairs as many times as necessary to obtain identifiable (aT,
er) and (ev, logav) pairs.
Table 1 summarizes the results for all samples. The threshold value appears to
increase with ageing, and with increasing speed in compression testing.

4. Conclusion

In Casagrande's graphical construction, identification of the stress at which the

recompression part of the e-loga curve has the smallest radius of curvature is an
important task. Generally, this point is estimated by visual inspection (Braja,
1985 ). Therefore, the use of Casagrande's method is suggested for tests with a
steep virgin slope and a clearly defined point of maximum curvature (Schmert-
mann and Asce, 1955 ). The computerized procedure presented here shows how
the position of this point can be found from the extreme value of the second
difference (SD) between filtered (e, loga) data pairs. (A copy of the program
can be obtained by sending a 3.5 in disk to the authors; Lotus copyright is not
contravened. ) The experimental results showed that this method can also be ap-
plied to compression curves with relatively small curvature.

References

Braja, M. D., 1985. Advanced Soil Mechanics. Hemisphere, McGraw-Hill, New York, 511 pp.
Casagrande, A., 1936. The determination of preconsolidationload and its practical significance. Proc.
Int. Conf. Soil Mech. Foun. Eng., 22-26 June 1936, Cambridge, MA, Vol. 3, pp. 60-64.
Craig, R.F., 1992. Soil Mechanics, 5th edn. Chapman & Hall, London, 427 pp.
Horn, R. and Lebert, M., 1992. M6glichkeiten und Grenzen der physikalischen Bodenrekultivierung
in der Forstwirtschaft. Forsttech. Inf., 44:61-65.
Koolen, A.J. and Kuipers, H., 1989. Soil deformation under compressive forces. In: W.E. Larson,
G.R. Blake, R.R. Allmaras, W.B. Voorhees and S.C. Gupta (Editors), Mechanics and Related
Processes in Structured Agricultural Soils. Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop, St. Paul, MN, 1988.
NATO ASI Series. Series E: Applied Sciences, Vol. 172, Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp. 37-52.
Schmertmann, J.H. and Asce, J.M., 1955. The undisturbed consolidation behavior of clay. Trans.
Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 120: 1201-1233.