Mechanical compaction.

Before looking at the different equipment used in mechanical compaction, we will have to
understand how the stresses are distributed in a soil under a load, where is the theory of
Boussinesq is the one who explains it best. We will provide an example for illustration.
theory. If an area 'A' of land of a given soil is taken and a load is applied to it.
"P" forms some stress bulbs as illustrated

If the load is increased to double, that is 2P, without altering the dimensions of the area, the
efforts double as can be seen in figure 1, which can cause
fractures in the soil particles greatly varying their grain size, moreover it does not
increases the distribution of effort outlined by the semicircles, which
It is concluded that it is not advisable to overload the equipment beyond the specifications.
from the manufacturers, as they can also get damaged when applying loads that exceed
pass to the design ones. But if the load and the area are doubled, the effort is the same
than the first, but the depth of the distributions does increase, leading to the conclusion
que si se desean capas de mucho mayor espesor deben usarse equipos más pesados y con
larger contact areas.
There is a wide variety of compaction equipment, in different brands and models. For
this work has been classified by the compaction energy they generate as follows
way Metal rollers. Pneumatic rollers. Goat leg rollers. Rollers
of the net. Impact rollers. Vibratory rollers. Vibratory goat leg rollers.

Metal roller.
These machines transmit pressure energy and some kneading in materials to the ground.
cohesives. At the beginning of the compaction, the material of the layer is weak and the
The roller sinks a certain amount with a certain contact width, but as the
As the process progresses, the material increases its resistance, which results in less penetration. This
It has two important consequences: It increases the pressure on the layer by reducing the area.
of contact, which, as seen before, is not advisable.
These machines are divided into two large groups: The bulldozer or three-wheeled planer that
consists of two parallel drum wheels at the rear and a front roller as well.
of drum. Hollow drums can be loaded. These plates are named: 10-12
tons, because when not loaded they are referred to as: 6-8 tons, because they weigh 6 tons when unloaded
8 tons with load.
Pneumatic rollers. Pneumatic rollers are very efficient and often essential.
for the compaction of subbases, bases, and layers, their pressure distributions are
similar to those of metal rollers, but the contact area remains constant by
what does not produce the effect of reducing pressure distributions. These
Compactors can be towed or self-propelled and can also be divided into two.
types, in large and small tires.
Goat leg rollers.
These compactors are distinguished by concentrating their weight in a relatively
small from a whole set of tips of different shapes exerting static pressures to
very large soil in the spots where the tips penetrate the ground. As the equipment goes
by making passes on the laid ground, the material becomes compacted, the tips stop
dig deeper into the soil until no additional compaction occurs.
Soil, at a depth of 6 cm the surface becomes distorted but compacts below.
the next layer that is laid.

Grid roller. This compactor was originally developed to break up rocks.

little resistant to compression, such as sedimentary rocks and some metamorphic ones, for
create passable penetration roads year-round, for this the roller travels over the
loose rocks on the road, breaking them and producing fines that fill the gaps between the
thicker materials forming a stable surface. The rock that can be scarified
it can also be disaggregated.
Vibratory rollers.
Vibration compaction uses rollers that provide a vibratory effect to
compactor element, the vibration frequency has a great influence on the process of
compaction and its optimal variation range can encompass the range of 0.5 to 1.5
sometimes the natural frequency of the ground, which leads the device to frequencies of 1500 to 2000
cycles per minute. The factors that influence the results of team performance
they are the following: The frequency that the oscillator can reach per minute The
amplitude, which can be quantified by a vertical distance in almost all equipment of the
market The dynamic thrust generated with each push of the oscillator The load
dead, the weight of the compaction equipment, that is to say everything else excluding the
oscillator The area covered by the compactor on the ground The stability of the roller

Chemical compaction (pressure-dissolution)

It occurs following mechanical compaction, during burial
deep. It originates as a result of concentrated pressure at contact points between:
grains, crystals or large surfaces (strata), which increases the solubility of the
carbonates. The consequence is the development of concave-convex and sutured contacts.
between grains, and the appearance of stylolitic surfaces on a large scale.

Compaction of non-cohesive soils.

The methods for compacting sand and gravel, arranged in order of decreasing efficiency
sound: vibration, wet and rolling. In practice, they have also been used.
combinations of these methods. Vibrations can occur in a way
primitive compacting with hand tamps, or with pneumatic tampers, or by dropping
a large weight from a certain height; one meter, for example. However, the compaction
alcanzada con estos procedimientos es muy variable, pues depende en gran parte de la
frequency of the vibrations. The best results are obtained with machines that vibrate
at a frequency close to the resonance of the soil-vibrator system. When f1 is
approximately equal to fo, the volume decrease or settlement is 20 to 40 times
greater than that which produces an equivalent static force to the pulsatile. By means of
rollers from 5 to 15 t, equipped with vibrators that operate at frequencies ranging between
1100 and 1500 pulses per minute, the effective compaction of coarse sand has been obtained.
grave and of stone rubble with comparable sized particles (Bertram,
1963). The material spreads in layers of 30 to 40 cm thick, having been obtained
In some works, an adequate compaction of layers of greater thickness, even when in
It is difficult to avoid segregation during the spread of the material. The size
the maximum of the particles is limited only by the thickness of the layers. Between 2 to 4
passed by such rollers pulled at a speed not exceeding around 3 km.
Time usually proves suitable to achieve a high degree of compaction. It is not necessary
a control on the moisture content. Such materials have also been
compacted by means of pneumatic rollers pulled by Diesel tractors mounted on
heavy coverings. During the compaction process, water can be added. Much of the
the compaction obtained under these conditions derives from that produced by the tractor plus
although through the roller. Normally, between 6 and 8 passes of the equipment are needed over a
same place to obtain a satisfactory degree of compaction, as long as the
material is deposited in layers of a thickness no greater than 30 cm. When it comes to
To compact limited areas, manual compactors may be suitable.
mechanical or motor-operated. The weight of these compactors varies among several
hundreds of kilograms to several tons and the pulsating force they deliver to the ground, to a
approximate frequency to that of the compactor's resonance and the soil is transferred through
from a flat sheet or from a roller. The thickness of the layers that can be compacted
Indeed, var1a between 10 and 20 cm. The compaction with water is based on the
the fact that the filtration pressure of the water flowing down breaks the groups of
unstable grains and the temporary flooding eliminates, at least briefly, the forces
capillaries. It is much less effective than vibration compaction. To compact
road embankments have used two grinding methods. In one of them, it
pile up the sand on trestles on both sides of the road and then drag the floor towards
the center with water jets, with a pressure of 4 to 5 kg/cm2, forming in this way
a deposit that has some characteristics of a clique built by refuted. In the
second method, the surface of the road is flooded with water, which filters downwards through the
arena already placed and escape at the foot of the embankment. Both methods require
approximately 1.5 cubic meters of water per cubic meter of sand, Comparing the
porosity of the embankments before and after the treatment has been proven that the
the degree of compaction obtained with any of these methods is relatively
low. Therefore, this practice should be discouraged. Non-vibrating rollers are
relatively ineffective for compacting non-cohesive soils, achieving the best
results when the sand is practically saturated. However, in clean sand, the
water drains quickly and it may not be feasible to keep the material in a
saturation state
Compaction of sandy or silty soils with moderate cohesion.
As cohesion increases, the effectiveness of vibrations decreases rapidly.
As a means of compaction, for although the adhesion between particles may be small, it
interferes with their tendency to shift to more stable positions. Moreover, the low
permeability of these soils traces ineffective flooding with water. In contrast, the
Compaction by layers using rollers has yielded very good results. There are two types.
of rollers in general use: tires and goat legs. The PNEUMATIC ROLLERS,
are better suited for compacting slightly cohesive sandy soils, the soils
compounds whose particles range from the size of gravel to that of silt.
Non-plastic silty soils. The GORING ROLLERS are most effective.
with plastic floors. Pneumatic Rollers usually consist of a flatbed
supported by a single row of 4 wheels equipped with tires inflation to pressures that
oscillate between 50 and 125 pounds per square inch (3.5 to 9 kg/cm2). The wheels are
mounted in such a way that the weight transmitted from the flatbed is distributed
uniformly among them, even when the surface of the ground is not level. The
Embankments for buildings are normally compacted in layers that have a thickness
finished that varies between 15 and 30 cm with 25 t rollers and inflation pressures of the
comparatively low covers. For embankments of another type and for dam reservoirs it is
It is common to use 50-ton rollers with tire inflation pressures much higher.
highs and layers of compacted thickness that varies between 15 and 30 cm, even though sometimes it
they use 100 t rollers varying in this case the thickness of the compacted layer between 30 and
45 cm. Usually, 4 to 6 passes are required to achieve the necessary compaction.
In large works where unusual materials are presented, the number of passes must
determined through compaction tests on the ground at the start of the work. The
the cylindrical surface of the Goat Foot Rollers is provided with prismatic protrusions.
or parts, with a frequency of 1 for every 700 cm² of cylindrical surface of the roller. The
rollers commonly used in the construction of saw dams have a diameter
of 1.50 and a length of approximately 2 m. When loaded they weigh around 15 t. The
Protrusions have a minimum length of 23 cm and a surface area that varies between 30 and 100.
cm2. Depending on the size of the foot, the contact pressure ranges from approximately 20 to 40.
kg/cm24. In road embankments, somewhat smaller and lighter rollers are used.
With the ordinary equipment, the thickness of the layers after being compacted must not exceed
about 15 cm. The required number of passes must be determined on the ground by
through trials carried out with small experimental embankments. It is obtained
generally satisfactory compaction after 6 passes of the roller (Turnbull and
Shockley, 1958). Whatever the type of compaction equipment available and the degree of
soil cohesion, the effectiveness of the compaction procedure largely depends on
of the soil moisture content. This is especially true for fine soils and
uniforms of very low plasticity since, unless their moisture content is almost
exactly the same as the 6th, they cannot be compacted in any way. If it is built
a test embankment with soil of uniform properties under conditions of a
careful control on the ground, and if the thickness of the layers, the type of compaction and the
number of passes remain all constant, it is discovered that the effectiveness of the
compaction depends only on the moisture content of the soil layer during the
compaction. The effectiveness of the compaction is measured by the weight of the solids per
volume unit, that is, for what is known as dry density. The shape of the leg
and the most suitable support surfaces depend on the type of soil. There is a trend
Towards the use of trunk pyramid legs, they avoid plowing the soil in their path.
the most effective support surface is to some extent a function of plasticity and
granulometric constitution of the soil. In uniform fine soils, the more silty v
less plastic the ground, the greater is the surface of 1l to use, within the limits
seiJalados en el texto. Se están usando también con buen resultado Rodillos Pata de Cabra
Vibratory and Free Vibrating Rollers, similar to those used for compacting sand. With
rollers free of a weight of about 8 t/m in length and a frequency of about 1200
vibrations per minute in 6 to 8 passes compact layers of up to 30 and 40 centimeters
of thickness.

UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS OF GUATEMALA -USAC-

NORTH UNIVERSITY CENTER -CUNOR-
Engineering Degrees
SOIL MECHANICS

ENG. LUISA AX

TYPES OF COMPACTION

DENIS VALENTIN LEAL ALL

201340598