CHAPTER- FIVE

ROLLERS

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 INTRODUCTION
 A roller is a compactor vehicle used to compact soil,
gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction work.
 compaction is the act of densifying the soil by pressing
soil particles together into close contact, resulting in the
expulsion of air and/or water from the soil mass.
 The result of the compactive effort is to increase the
strength of an earth till or embankment.
 Compaction of the soil is obtained by various actions and
roller machines.

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 Compaction of soil is attained by applying energy to soil
by one of the methods given below.
1. Static Weight
2. Impact
3. Vibration
4. Kneading action

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Static Weight:
 Applied by smooth wheel rollers and pneumatic tyre rollers.

 Compaction can not reach lower strata because of internal

friction of soil.
 So this compaction is especially good for granular soils

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Impact Compaction:
 The equipment used for impact compaction are tamping
rollers and rammers.
 Impact reduces the internal friction of soil and particles
start moving towards voids easily.

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Vibrating:
 Vibrating rollers and vibrating plates are used.

 In this system impact force penetrates down to great

depth.
 Vibration minimizes the internal friction of particles and
smaller particles move down to voids easily.

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Kneading Action:
 In this system the compaction starts from a lower level
and comes upward.
 Kneading action is actually the application of shear
stress to soil.
 Sheep's foot roller (tamping rollers) and pneumatic tire
rollers are used.

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Types of rollers
There are different types of rollers:
1. Smooth wheeled roller

2. Pneumatic tyre roller

3. Sheep foot roller

4. Vibrating and tamping roller

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 1. Smooth wheeled roller
 Smooth wheeled rollers are of two types:
i. Static smooth wheeled roller
ii. Vibrating smooth wheeled roller
 The compacting efficiency depends on weight ,width and
diameter of each roller.
 Suitable for wide range of soil preferably granular soils
such as sand, gravel, and crushed stones.
 It is also effective in smoothing surface of soils that have
been compacted by tamping rollers

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 1. Smooth wheeled roller
 The desirable speed and number of passes for appropriate
compaction of soil depends on the type of soil and varies
from location to location.
 In case of vibrating smooth wheeled rollers, the drums
are made to vibrate by employing rotating or
reciprocating mass.

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Figure: Smooth wheeled roller
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2. Pneumatic tyre roller
 In this type number of pneumatic wheels are mounted
on two or more axels under a loading platform ,pulled
by tractor.
 In addition to the direct pressure due to rolling there is
also slight kneading action.
 They may also be small or large tired units. The small
tire units are usually have two tendon axle with 4 to 9
tires on each axels.

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Pneumatic tyre roller
 Major advantages of Pneumatic tyre roller are
the ability to control the ground contact pressure
by:
a) Altering the weights of machines,

b) Increasing the number of wheels,

c) Increasing the tyre width

d) Changing the contact area of the tyre by

altering the contact pressure.

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Pneumatic tyre roller

Figure: Pneumatic tyre roller

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Pneumatic tyre roller
Tyre Overlap:
• There is some gap between the tyres provided in front
and rear tyres.This gap is filled with the movement of
tyres.
• To achieve uniform compaction effect and avoid tyre
marks, front and rear tyres are over lap.

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Pneumatic tyre roller

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 3.Sheep foot roller
 This type of roller Contains a steel drum
including a number of projecting steel feet.
 During rolling operation the soil under the
projecting feet get compacted and also
considerable kneading action to the soil.
 When the drum rotates, the pads out of the soil
they kick to the material because of their shape.
 They are suitable for compacting all fined
grained material but is generally not suitable for18
use of cohesion less granular material.
Figure:Sheep foot roller
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 4. Vibrating and tamping roller
Vibrating roller
 Vibratory compactor enhance the performance of static
weight machines by adding dynamic forces, usually
achieved by a rotating eccentrically weighted shaft
mounted inside the roller.
 Vibrations of vibrators arrange the particles by first
disturbing even the arranged ones.
 Vibrators are turned off during the reversed motion of
roller.

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Vibrating roller

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Vibrating roller

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 Vibrating roller
 Very useful for granular materials.
 Combination of vibration and pressure is applied.

 Not good for cohesive soils.

They could be:

 Vibrating tamping rollers

 Vibrating steel-drum (smooth wheel) rollers

 Vibrating pneumatic rollers

 Vibrating plates or shoes (manually operated rammers)

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PRINCIPLE OF VIBRATORY ROLLERS
The vibration is produced
by rotating the off-center
weights

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 Principle of vibratory compaction:
 Grains of soil are effected by periodically alternating inertial
forces.
 These forces make grain particles ‘floating’, so ordering is
progressed without friction.
 At vibratory compaction low amplitude high frequency
excitation is used for loose soil or for deep layers.
 High amplitude low frequency excitation is used for cohesive
soils in thin layers.
 Frequency of excitation should be close to characteristic
frequency of the soil

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VIBRATORY ROLLERS - AMPLITUDE
 It is the vertical displacement of the roller drum.
Amplitude of vibration is directly related to the impact
force.

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VIBRATORY ROLLERS - FREQUENCY
 The Frequency is Drum impacts per minute

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Effect of Characteristics of Vibratory Roller

• High amplitude and low frequency are used to

compact soft soils and to reach deeper zones while
low amplitude and high frequency are used for stiff
soils and shallow depth.
• Further High amplitude and low frequency setting
is used for compaction of a thick layer whereas low
amplitude and high frequency setting is used for
the compaction of thin layer.
• For example on a first pass the roller might use a high
amplitude and low frequency but at the fourth pass, it sets
itself with a low amplitude and high frequency.
• The effectiveness of compaction depends upon several
factors involving interaction between the equipment and
the soil being compacted. These factors include.
a) Operating Frequency :
 Frequency control the number of impacts per meter
between the drum and ground.
 Maximum compaction occurs when it vibrates near
resonant frequency.
 Effect of Frequency

Fig . Effect of Frequency

b) Amplitude of vibration:
• It is the vertical displacement of the roller drum.

• Amplitude of vibration is directly linked to the impact force.

• Higher amplitude results in achieving higher thickness of

compacted material at minimum number of passes, thereby
improving productivity.
• Amplitude determines impact force

Fig. Effect of Amplitude

C) Speed of Travel :
• Slow speed results in closeness of impacts, whereas high speed results
in increase in the spacing of impacts.
• An even lower speed may be required for the initial passes.

Impact Spacing

Fig. Effect of Travel Speed

Ways of excitation:
 circular excitation: simple construction, single exciter
unit eccentric should always rotate in , eccentric should
always rotate in direction of advancing
 directed excitation: double exciter unit, generates both
compressing and sharing forces in the soil
simultaneously
 oscillation: the two exciter masses generate moment at
the surface of the drum creating compressing and sharing
forces in the soil so , so grains are ordered horizontally.
Vertical force is provided by the weight of the drum
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 Tamping foot roller
 These rollers usually have steel padded wheels and can be
equipped with a small blade to help for leveling the layer.
 As tamping rollers moves over the surface the feet
penetrate into the soil to mix and compact the soil from
bottom to top of the layer.
 Tamping foot roller is best dedicated to fine grained soils.

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Figure: Tamping foot roller 36
 Output of Compactors

 Compacted earthwork is measured in terms of

compacted volume in the fill.
 This can be found by multiplying the compacted area by
the thickness of the compacted layer.
 Usually the number of passes required to attain
necessary soil density is specified, and should be
considered while estimating production.

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 The output of compacting rollers in a given time can be
estimated from the formula:

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Example:

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EXAPLE 2

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 Specification of rollers
 Caterpillar CS54B Smooth Drum Vibratory Soil Compactor

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Specification of rollers

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Thank you!

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