URICSE-21-009

11/9/2021

Evaluation of Soil Compaction Characteristics

at a Construction Site in Al-Khalis City,
Northeast of Iraq
Asem A. Hassan
Department of Petroleum Geology and Minerals
College of Science, University of Diyala, Iraq

asem.ahmed@uodiyala.edu.iq

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Background 11/9/2021

What is Soil Compaction?

a process by which soil particles are packed together by means of
mechanical energy.

Loose soil Compacted soil

Objectives of soil Compaction:

•Increase soil strength and load bearing capacity
•Decrease potential for settlement (lower compressibility)
•Reduction in hydraulic conductivity
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Evaluation of Compaction properties 11/9/2021

Compaction properties namely the maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum
moisture content (OMC) are usually evaluated using standard laboratory tests
such as Standard and Modified Proctor tests, and used as criteria to control
the specification of field compaction process.

Dry density measured at the site and the maximum dry density obtained from Standard Proctor
test can be used to calculate Compaction Ratio or Relative Compaction R:

R is commonly adopted by geotechnical engineers to evaluate the compaction efficiency.

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Materials and Method 11/9/2021
Ten soil samples (BH1-BH10) were collected from a construction site
located in Al-Khalis city, northeast of Iraq.

•Standard Procter compaction tests were conducted according to ASTM standard to determine
MDD and OMC.

• Core cutter method is used to calculate field dry density.

The current study aims to evaluate compaction characteristics of the soil at the site
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Results and Discussion

Compaction curves

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11/9/2021
Results and Discussion

Compaction curves using different MDD and OMC relationship compared with data
compaction efforts from the literature

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11/9/2021
Results and Discussion

Specifications for engineering projects (buildings, embankments, earth dams, etc.) usually require R
≥ 95% . In the current work, R values showed that the soil at the site was compacted to satisfactory
ranges suitable for construction works

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Conclusions
•Soil compaction characteristics namely OMC and MDD were evaluated at a
construction site to assess field compaction specifications.

•Laboratory compaction tests performed on collected samples showed that

OMC values were ranged from 16.20 to 22.15% while MDD values were
ranged from 1.63 to 1.83 g/cm3.

• Increasing compaction effort increases MDD and decreases OMC of the

soil.

•Compaction ratio calculated based on field and laboratory dry density

indicates that the soil was compacted at the site to accepted ranges suitable
for construction specifications.

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11/9/2021

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