3-6.

SOIL REACTION TO DENSITY

The property of soil that contains larger amount of fines, are influenced by mixture rather
than by any other factor. Soil that is strong enough with supporting capability under one set of
moisture is changed. Records revealed that an increase of 1% moisture content on granular layers
increase damages to pavement by factor of 700. Definitely, soils that are used as sub grade is
subjected to moisture changes.
Density of soil is its mass per unit volume. It is sometimes expressed as “Wet Weight” or the
total weight including water. The air volume in the soil substantially decreases as soil particles
become dense when compacted. The most important consideration in pavement work is, to
decrease the moisture (water) content of the coarse grain soil.
3-7 IN-PLACE DENSITY AND UNIT WEIGHT

In-placed density, refers to the volumetric weight expressed in pound per cubic
foot, or kilo Newton per cubic meter, or mega grams per cubic meter of soil in the
undisturbed condition or compacted fill. The density of water is 1 mg/ m3 or
1,000,000gm/m3.
Determination of in-place density or unit weight I made on barrow pit soils to
determine the shrinkage volume or sell result as the soil I transported and
compacted at the fill location. The standard practice is to test the in-place density
of the soil after dumping on site, to determine whether, compaction is necessary.
NUCLEAR DENSITY GAUGE
 3-8 RELATIVE DENSITY

For granular soil, the sheer strength and resistance to

compression are related to the density of soil. Higher
strength and resistance to compression are developed
by the soil when it is in a loose condition.
Relative density is expressed in percentage, thus:
  
x 100%

Where:
– e max- void of the soil in loosest condition.
– e min- void ratio of the soil in its dense condition.
– eo- void ratio of the soil in its natural conditioned.
In the term of dry unit weight, the relative density is:
 

Where:
– Dul= dry unit weight in its loosest condition
– Dud= dry unit weight in its densest condition
– Do= dry unit weight in its natural condition or condition in question.
 Example-6

A sample of undisturbed fine sand .09 cubic foot, 10

lbs dry weight with specific gravity (gs) of 2.60 was
tested at the maximum density of 0.40 and minimum
density with void ratio of 0.90. find the relative density
of the undisturbed sample.