GROUND IMPROVEMENT

BY COMPACTION

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha Shrivastava (MNIT,

by

Jaipur)
Dr. Neha Shrivastava,
Assistant Prof.,
Dept. of Civil Engineering

neha.ce@mnit.ac.in
1
 Ground Improvement Methods
“Reinforcement” “Improvement” “Treatment”

• Stone Columns • Compaction • Cement

• Soil Nails • Preload/Surcharge • Lime Admixtures
• Deep Soil Nailing • Electro-osmosis • Dewatering
• Micropiles (Mini-piles) • Compaction grouting • Heating/Freezing
• Jet Grouting • Blasting • Vitrification
• Ground Anchors
• Biotreatment
• Geosynthetics
• Fiber Reinforcement
• Lime Columns
• Mechanically Stabilized
Earth (MSE)
• Biological (e.g. roots)

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

2
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Objectives of Compaction
• Compaction improves the engineering properties like
shear strength, density, permeability etc. of the fill.
• It reduces the potential for excessive settlement.
• It reduces the chances of slope stability problems like
landslides.
• It reduces the amount of water that can be held in
the soil by decreasing the void ratio and thus helps in
maintaining the required strength.
• It increases the erosion resistance which helps in
maintaining the ground surface in serviceable
condition.
• It reduces the swelling
Lecture Notes:and shrinkage
'Compaction' by Dr. Neha
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
potential. 3
 Principle /Mechanism of Compaction
• At very low moisture content- capillary tension
causes increase in contact pressure and friction
• As moisture content content increases capillary
tension decreases causing densification due to
lubrication effect particles reorient themselves
to form a packed condition reducing voids
density increases
• After OMC neutral stresses develop density
reduces

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

4
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Types of compaction

• Shallow surface compaction

• Deep compaction

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

5
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Methods of Shallow Compaction
• Vibration
• Impact
• Kneading
• Pressure

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

6
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Field Compaction Equipment
(1) Smooth wheeled rollers:-
• Bicycle or tricycle configurations
• Ballasted or unballasted
• self propelled
• Static or vibratory
• Large contact area hence less pressure(300-400kPa)
• Only for thin layer compaction- subgrade, pavement layers etc.
• Each layer to be scarified before next- to prevent weak planes
• Vibratory roller for granular soils
• 3-6km/hr speed
• Lift thickness 10-20cm
• Relative compaction can be monitored

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

7
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
(2) Sheepsfoot rollers:-
• Tamping foot rollers
• Protruding studs /feet that penetrate into soil
• Tamping and kneading action
• Suitable for predominantly clayey soils, not for coarse grained soils
• Ballasted or unballasted
• Contact pressure: 1500-7000 kPa
• Walkout process
• Self propelled or towed
• Usual roller speed 3-6km/hr, self propelled upto 9km/hr
• Vibrating tamping foot rollers can be used for silty and clayey sands

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

8
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
(3) Grid rollers:-
• Intermediate between smooth wheeled and
sheepsfoot rollers
• Wheels made of steel bars forming a grid with square
holes
• Less kneading action but high contact pressure
• More suitable for coarse grained soils

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

9
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
(4) Pneumatic tyred rollers:-
• By Kneading action
• Suitable for both cohesive and cohesionless soils
• Can be ballasted
• Wobble-wheel effect
• Front and rear wheels not in alignment for better efficiency
• Speed 6-12 km/hr
• Smoother finish
• Lift thickness: 15-30 cm based on roller weight
• Heavier in weight hence lesser no; of passes required; thicker lifts, reveal
weak zones

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

10
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
Other surface compaction devices
• Heavy rubber tired trucks
• Crawler type tractors- for cohesionless soils
• Smaller ones: air tamps, impact rollers, vibratory
plate devices etc.

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

11
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
Applicability of Compaction Equipment

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

12
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Laboratory Compaction tests
• Purpose: Find the maximum dry unit weight and
corresponding optimum moisture content.

• The standard was originally developed to simulate

field compaction in the laboratory

• There are two types of standard tests :-

1. Standard Proctor test
2. Modified Proctor test

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

13
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
Standard proctor test Modified proctor test

944 cm3 mould 944 cm3 mould

3 layers 5 layers
25 blows each layer 25 blows each layer
2.5 Kg hammer 4.9 Kg hammer
300mm free fall 450mm free fall
Compactive energy 570KJ/m3 (4.5 times extra)

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

14
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Compaction Test Procedure
W1

Oven drying @ 105oC

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha
W2
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
Get water content (w15 %)
 Presentation of Results
• For each test, the moist unit weight of compacted soil is:-
W2  W1

Vmold

• Then the dry unit weight is calculated as:-


d 
 w% 
1  
 100 

• Repeat the previous procedure for several water content

and calculate corresponding (yd).

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

16
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
Proctor Compaction Curve

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

17
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
• To better understand and check the compaction curve, it is
helpful to plot the zero air void curve.

• The zero air void curve is a plot of the dry unit weight
against water content at 100% degree of saturation.

• This variation of (ƴdry)as function of water content and

degree of saturation can be calculated using:
G 
d  s w
Gs w
1
S

• Form definition of zero air voids, S =1

Gs  w
 d zav 
1  Gs w
Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha
18
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Effect Of Compaction on Soil structure

Flocculated
•Soil fabric tends to be more
flocculated (random) for
compaction dry of
Dispersed
optimum.
•Soil fabric tends to be more
dispersed (oriented) for
compaction wet of Dry of optimum wet of optimum

optimum.

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

19
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Effect of Compaction on Engineering Properties

Dry side Wet side

Structure Flocculated Dispersed

Permeability More permeable Less permeable

Compressibility More compressible in More compressible in

high pressure range low pressure range

Swelling
Higher *Shrinks more

Strength Higher Lower

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
20
 Compaction Quality control
• Compaction control tests are essential to
check whether the objectives of compaction
are achieved.
• It is difficult to check the objectives directly
and properties like:- strength and
compressibility are assessed indirectly.
• Control tests in terms of water content,
density, penetration resistance are conducted.

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

21
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Types of Specifications
(1) End-product specifications:-
• This specification is used for most highways and
building foundation, as long as the contractor is able to
obtain the specified relative compaction, how he
obtains it doesn’t matter, nor does the equipment he
uses.
(2) Method specifications:-
• The type and weight of roller, the number of passes of
that roller, as well as the lift thickness are specified. A
maximum allowable size of material may also be
specified.
• It is typically used for large compaction project.

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

22
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Relative Compaction (R.C.)
• Relative compaction or percent compaction

• Correlation between relative compaction (R.C.) and the relative

density Dr

• It is a statistical result based on 47 soil samples.

As Dr = 0, R.C. is 80
Dr=(emax-e)/(emax - emax)
Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha
23
• Typical required R.C. = 90% ~ 95%
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Relative Compaction Determination
Methods
Destructive methods:-
• Core cutting method IS 2720 (Part 29)
• Sand replacement method IS 2720 (Part 28)
• Volumenometer method
• Rubber-balloon method
• Proctor-needle method

Non- destructive methods:-

• Nuclear gauge method
• Impact Tester

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

24
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
 Numerical Problems on Compaction
Q.1. An earth dam require one hundred cubic meter of soil compacted with unit
weight of 20.5 KN/m3 and moisture content of 8%, choose two from the three
borrow pits given in the table below, knowing that the first must be one of the
two borrow pits, the specific gravity of solid particles is 2.7. Choose the most
economical choice.

Q.2. A soil sample has avoid ratio of 0.72, moisture content = 12% and Gs=2.72
determine the following:
a) Dry unit weight, moist unit weight (KN/m3).
b) Weight of water in KN/m3 to be added for 80% degree of saturation.
c) Is it possible to reach a water content of 30% without change the present void
ratio.
d) Is it possible to compact the soil sample to a dry unit weight of 23.5 KN/m3.

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

25
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
Q.3. A proposed earth dam requiers 7500 m3 of compacted soil with relative
density of 94% , maximim void ratio of 0.73, minimum void ratio of 0.4 and
specific gravity (Gs)=2.67. Four borrow pits are available as described in the
following table.Choose the best borrow pit with minimum cost.

Q.4. Soil has been compacted in an embankment at a bulk unit weight of

2.15 t/m3 And water content of 12% , the solid particles of soil having specific
gravity of 2.65.
a) Calculate the dry unit weight, degree of saturation, and air content.
b) Would it possible to compact the above soil at a water content of 13.5% to
a dry unit weight of 2 t/m3.

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

26
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
Q.5. An embankment for a highway 30 m wide and 1.5 m thick is to be
constructed from sandy soil, trucked in from a borrow pit .The water content
of the sandy soil in the borrow pit is 15% and its void ratio is 0.69.
Specifications require the embankment to compact to a dry weight of 18
KN/m3. Determine- for 1 km length of embankment-the following:
a) The dry unit weight of sandy soil from the borrow pit to construct the
embankment, assuming that Gs=2.7.
b) The number of 10 m3 truckloads of sandy soil required to construct the
embankment.
c) The weight of water per truck load of sandy soil.
d) The degree of saturation of the in-situ sandy soil.

Q.6. A borrow material has a volume of 191,000 m3 and void ratio of 1.2.
After compaction its new void ratio is 0.7, find the corresponding volume?

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

27
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)
THANK YOU

Lecture Notes: 'Compaction' by Dr. Neha

28
Shrivastava (MNIT, Jaipur)