INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

https://doi.org/10.1080/19386362.2019.1595301

Prediction of compaction parameters for fine-grained and coarse-grained soils: a

review
Gaurav Verma and Brind Kumar
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Maximum dry density and optimum moisture content achieved through laboratory compaction test Received 1 February 2019
are equally significant for field engineer as much as for laboratory investigators, to assess the Accepted 10 March 2019
suitability of borrow materials used in earthwork constructions of highway projects. The laboratory KEYWORDS
Proctor compaction test consumes more effort, time and huge quantity of soil. Moreover, if the Index properties;
index properties of borrow materials changes for small stretches of highway then preserving such engineering properties;
vast quantity of soil in the laboratory and conducting Proctor compaction test becomes fine-grained and
lengthy, laborious and expensive. Therefore, attempts were made formerly to predict compaction coarse-grained soil;
parameters through the index properties intending to reduce the time involved. This paper explores maximum dry density and
the existing models in the literature which seek out to improve the database. Based on the review, optimum moisture content;
it is perceived that a simple model with an extended range of index properties, known either from statistical analysis; Artificial
bibliographies or project reports or database of the quarry, of fine-grained and coarse-grained soil neural network; genetic
programming
could be developed.

Introduction railway subgrade, earth dams, trench backfills, airfield pave-

Soil compaction processes
Soil compaction is the processes of constraining soil particles to
pack more closely together by reducing the air voids, generally
through the mechanical means utilizing water as the lubricating
medium (Sridharan and Nagaraj 2005). During this process, the
air voids are reduced but not the water content. The purpose of
compaction is to reduce undesirable settlement, permeability
and swelling, and increase the stability of slopes and the shear
strength of soils which in turn enhance the bearing capacity of
the soil. Proctor (1933), had suggested laboratory methods for
compaction in which soil particles are compacted at the desired
compactive effort, to simulate the energy that a soil compaction
equipment deliver to the soil in the field, in a cylindrical mould
of 1000 cm3. Typically, standard Proctor compaction is adopted
for normal traffic loading situations and modified Proctor com-
paction test is followed under the circumstances where heavy
unit weights are to be considered such as airfield pavements (Viji
et al. 2013). The results obtained from the test, conducted in the
laboratory either by standard Proctor compaction (ASTM D 698
2012) or by modified Proctor compaction (ASTM D 2012) are
presented graphically as the inverted ‘V’ curve, the peak of
which is termed as maximum dry density (MDD) and corre-
sponding moisture content is known as optimum moisture
content (OMC) of the soil.
Problem statement
Compacted borrow materials are used in various civil engineer-
ing projects such as landfill liners, highway embankments,
ments and behind retaining walls, etc. Attaining optimum
moisture content and maximum dry density in the laboratory,
through standard and modified compaction tests, requires con-
siderable time (almost 2–3 days), effort and a vast quantity of
soil (approximate 20 kg for individual test) which can be
avoided by developing the empirical correlations. Sridharan
and Sivapullaiah (2005) developed the mini compaction appa-
ratus for fine-grained soils. The difference in the results obtained
from the purposed apparatus and available method (standard
and modified) were negligible though restricted to fine-grained
soil having particle size less than 2 mm.
In recent years, several attempts have been made to
correlated compaction parameters of fine-grained and few
for coarse-grained soil with their index properties. The
researchers have used graphical, statistical and soft com-
puting techniques which are commonly used for geotech-
nical problems. The efforts made in the past in this
direction are reviewed in this paper with the quest for
working out the research gaps. Figure 1 shows the structure
of the literature review.
An overview of predicting the compaction
characteristics of soils
Inclusion of index properties into compaction parameters
Evaluation of soil properties like permeability, compaction,
consolidation, strength, and compressibility through labora-
tory testing are much essential to understand and interpret,
how soils will behave in the field. The behaviour of soil under

CONTACT Gaurav Verma gauravv.rs.civ16@itbhu.ac.in Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh-221005,
INDIA
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