Soil Compaction

As described in Geotechnical Engineering I, soil being a particulate medium contains pore

spaces, which may or may not be filled with water. If the void ratio of a partially saturated soil
is high, when the soil is subjected to external forces, the soil particles will be pushed to fill the
void spaces. As a result the soil will be subjected to large deformations. On the other hand, as
the soil mass is in a loose structure the strength may be low and the conductivity of water
through it may be high. Therefore, it is required to reduce the void spaces of partially saturated
loose soil deposits to improve the strength, reduce compressibility and conductivity. Generally
these objectives are achieved by compaction of the loose soil deposits through application of
mechanical energy.
Soil may be used in civil engineering projects mainly in two different ways: as a foundation
material subjected to superstructure loads and/or as a construction material to build structures
such as water retaining dams, embankments for roads and rail tracks etc. Imagine construction
of a large earth dam involving few million cubic meters of soil. Economic handling of such
large quantities of soil usually imposes two constraints on the geotechnical engineers. Firstly,
only soil available near the project site can be used and therefore borrow areas must be located
in the immediate vicinity of the project. Secondly, processing of soil in terms of altering its
properties by introducing additives like cement, lime, asphalts, chemicals etc is not possible
with large quantities of soil. In such situations, the engineer should select economically feasible
borrow pits with good quality material. Then, the soil should be placed in a systematic process
and compacted to obtain the desired properties.
Soil compaction is the process which dandifies soil through application of mechanical energy,
without introducing additives. In compacting soil in the field, three parameters can be
conveniently and economically controlled to influence the properties of the compacted
material. These parameters are:
i. the water content of the soil at compaction.
ii. the compactive effort;
iii. the type of compaction; and
Generally, since the success of the compaction depends on the reduction of the void spaces
with the solid soil particles, the dry unit weight of the soil is used as the measure of the
compaction rather than the bulk unit weight.
Effect of the water content on the compaction

To investigate the effects of the water content on the compaction of the soil, soil is compacted
in the mould at different water contents by applying equal amount of compaction energy
(standard Proctor energy). If the dry unit weight of the soil is obtained at different water
contents, the plot of the dry unit weight vs. moisture content will take a shape similar to the
one shown below:

dry Dry of wet of

optimum optimum

Maximum dry
unit weight

Optimum water
content

Water content at compaction

At low moisture contents, the compaction becomes less effective and as a result the dry unit
weight is low. When water is added to the soil during compaction, it acts as a softening agent
on the soil particles. The soil particles slip over each other and move into a densely packed
position. As a result the dry unit weight after compaction first increases as the moisture content
increases. However, beyond a certain moisture content, any increase in the moisture content
tends to reduce the dry unit weight. This is because the water takes up the spaces that would
have been occupied by the solid soil particles. The moisture content, at which the maximum
dry unit weight is attained, is generally referred to as the optimum moisture content. Water
contents less than optimum are referred to as dry of optimum and those more than optimum are
referred to as wet of optimum. The testing procedure used to obtain the maximum dry unit
weight and the optimum moisture content is referred to as Proctor compaction test.

Standard Proctor Compaction Test (ASTM D 698-78 (standard) and D 1557-78(re-approved

1990)

In 1933, R. R. Proctor proposed a test to determine the maximum dry density and optimum
moisture content of a soil under a give compaction effort. Slightly modified version of that test
is referred to as Proctor compaction test. In the Proctor compaction test, a soil sample is
compacted into a standard mold shown in Figure 13(a). The total volume of the mold is 944
cm3. Compaction of the soil is carried out using the standard hammer shown in Figure 13 (b).
The hammer has a 2.5kg ram, which can be lifted 300mm and dropped.
The test should be performed on a representative soil sample and about 3 kg of dry soil is taken
for the test. The test is generally carried out at 5 different moisture contents. The mold should
be assembled with the base plate, cylinder and the collar as shown in 13 (a). In the standard
Proctor test, the soil is compacted in the mold using three approximately equal layers with each
layer subjected to 25 hammer blows. Each time the ram is lifted 300mm and dropped onto
the soil to be compacted. After compaction of the third layer, the collar is removed and the top
level of the compacted soil should be about 3mm above the top level of the cylinder. The wet
soil in the mold is determined and moisture content samples are taken from top, middle and
bottom levels of the compacted soil in the mold. Knowing the wet density (wet) and the
moisture content (w) of the soil, the dry density (dry) can be obtained using the following
relationship.
wet
dry
w
1
100
The test is repeated, using the same soil after adding some water, for four other moisture
contents of until the wet density of the soil in the mold is lower than for the previous moisture
content. The Dry density verses moisture content is plotted to obtain the maximum dry density
and the optimum moisture content as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 13 Mold and the hammer used in the standard Proctor compaction test.
Modified Proctor compaction test
With the development of heavy rollers and their use in field compaction, the standard Proctor
test was modified to better represent the compaction effort used in field compaction of soils.
For conducting the modified Proctor compaction test, the same mold is used as in the case of
standard Proctor test. However, the soil is compacted in five layers by a hammer the weighs
4.54 kg. The drop of the hammer is 457.2mm. Similar to the standard Proctor compaction
test, the number of hammer blows per each layer is limited to 25. The rest of the procedure
of the modified Proctor compaction test is similar to that of the standard Proctor compaction
test. Typical calculation sheet of the Proctor compaction test is given in Table 10 and the
graphical representation of dry density verses moisture content is given in Figure 14.

Table 10 Typical proctor compaction calculation

Test No 1 2 3 4 5
Wt of the mold (g) 1907.0 1907.0 1907.0 1907.0 1907.0
Wt of the wet soil + mold 3622.0 3813.0 3943.0 3912.0 3859.0
Wt of the can + wet soil 185.1 167.2 171.4 207.7 194.2
Wt. Of the can 10.3 9.5 9.0 10.1 8.8
Wt. Of the can + dry soil 174.1 153.8 154.8 182.3 167.9
Water content (%) 6.7 9.3 11.3 14.7 16.5
Bulk unit weight (kG/m 3) 1816.7 2019.1 2156.8 2123.9 2067.8
Dry unit weight (kN/m3) 1703.0 1847.7 1937.5 1851.6 1774.4

2000
1950
1900
Dry Density (kg/m3)

1850
1800
1750
1700
1650
1600
1550
1500
5 10 15 20
Moisture content (%)

Figure 14 - Dry density Vs moisture content

Clay particles have a flaky shape and they are electrically charged and carry a net negative
charge in them. Generally, the faces of these clay particles are negatively charged, whereas,
the ends are positively charged. Clay particles usually form two types of structures, namely,
flocculated structure or dispersed structure. If the charge on the clay particles are not
neutralized by the bi-polar water molecules or other cations, the positively charged edges will
be attracted to the negatively charged faces of the clay particles to form an open card-house
type of an arrangement, as shown in the (a) of the following Figure, termed as flocculated
structure. On the other hand, when the electrical charges carried by the clay particles are
somewhat neutralized by bi-polar water molecules or cations, the clay particles are
surrounded by a thicker layer of adsorbed water. Under such conditions, the clay particles
can form a dispersed structure with near parallel orientation as shown in (b) of the following
Figure.

The structure of the compacted fine grained soils with the water content can be illustrated as
shown below.
Consider a soil at low moisture content with a water content of wB as shown in the above
Figure. The small quantity of water present in the soil is not sufficient to form a thick
adsorbed water layer surrounding the clay particles to neutralize the electrical charge of the
clay particles. Therefore, when the soil is compacted, the clay particles are pushed close to each
other and the negatively charged faces of the clay particles attract the positively charged edges
to form a flocculated structure.
If little bit more water is added to the soil prior to compaction, say wC, in the above Figure, a
thicker adsorbed water layer than at B will be formed surrounding the clay particles. The
particle faces are negatively charged but not as much as they were at wB. Once subjected to
compaction stresses, most particles get aligned in a face-to-end configuration but some get
pushed into face-to-face arrangement as well since the face-to-end contacts are not as strong
as at wB. the resulting structure is still flocculated but neither is it quite as open as at wB nor
are the particle contacts quite as strong as at wB. the dry unit weight that is obtained at wC is as
such greater than at wB.
This trend will continue with addition of more and more water resulting higher and higher
dry unit weight with structures which are less and less flocculated. However, after the
optimum moisture content, the adsorbed water layer surrounding the clay particles are
well developed and most of the electrical charges on clay particles are neutralized. During the
compaction process these well developed adsorbed water layers surrounding the particles
interfere with each other and prevent particles from coming close to each other to assume a
dense packing. The energy supplied by the compaction process gets dissipated in futile
bumping of one adsorbed layer with another. The compacted soil so produced has a low dry
unit weight and form a dispersed structure with parallel alignment of particles.
Approximate field methods to determine the optimum moisture content

The best method of estimation of the optimum moisture content is by carrying out a laboratory
standard or modified Proctor compaction test. However, for small jobs the optimum moisture
content may not be available. In such situations, the simple field test described below could be
used to determine the approximate optimum moisture content.
About 1 kg of soil to be compacted is mixed with small quantity of moisture so that it could be
molded into a clot in the palm of a hand by squeezing. The soil clot, thus formed, is dropped
from a height of about 1.5 m on to a solid surface, similar to a rendered floor. Following three
observations of the soil clot after the impact yield the water content of the soil in relation to the
optimum moisture content:
i. If the soil clot is separated into individual particles or smaller clots and spreads,
the water content is less than the optimum;
ii. If the soil clot breaks into two or three pieces without spreading, the water content
is close to the optimum; and
iii. If the soil clot does not break but deforms as a single unit, the water content is
more than the optimum.

Effects of the compactive efforts

If the compactive effort is increased using a heavier hammer falling over a larger height
compacting the soil in the mold with five number of layers, such compaction test procedure is
referred to as the Modified Proctor Compaction Test. The moisture content vs. dry unit
weight relationship generally observed for standard and modified Proctor compaction testing
of the same soil type is shown in the following Figure.
 K
dry dry(max) B Zero-air void line
(Standard) D Modified
dry(max) A Proctor Test
(Modified)

Large increase F
Small increase
in dry C in dry
E

wopt. L
w (Std.) w
dry of opt. wet of opt.
wopt.
(Mfd.) Water content at compaction

It is evident from the above Figure that the maximum dry unit weight is increased and the
optimum moisture content is reduced when the compactive effort is increased. It is also
noticed that an increased in the compactive effort produces a very sizable increase in dry unit
weight for soil when it is compacted at water contents drier than optimum water content (C to
D in the above Figure). On the other hand, when soil is compacted wet of the optimum water
content, an increase in the compactive effort produces only a small increase in the dry unit
weight (E to F in the above Figure).
Line KL in the above Figure shows the dry unit weight with zero-air-void (!00% saturated)
corresponding to the respective water contents. The zero-air-void unit weight, zav,
corresponding to the water content, w, is given by the following Equation.
w
zav
1
w
Gs
For all the combinations of dry unit weight and water content, which plot in the space to the
left of the line KL, the voids in the soil are not totally filled with water and in a partially
saturated state. Regardless of how soil is compacted, how much it is compacted and how high
the water content of pre-compacted soil is, compaction can never drive out all the air from
the void spaces and invariably partially saturated soil is produced in the as compacted
state. Therefore, all the dry unit weight vs. moisture content curves will always be to the left
of the zero-air-void line.

Effects of the type of compaction

Field compaction of soil is done using different types of rollers, namely, steel drum, pneumatic
tyre, sheeps-foot, and vibratory rollers. The type of compaction used not only influences the
ease with which a particular soil can be compacted but also influences soil properties of the
compacted material through its influence on the structure of the compacted soil.
When the type of compaction is such that there is little intimate interaction between the
compaction device and the soil, for example as in static compaction, soil particles even at
water contents wet of optimum remain in a relatively random orientation which characterizes
flocculated soil. Influence of the type of compaction on the structure of the compacted soil can
be summarized as given below:

Type of compaction Water content

Dry of optimum Wet of optimum
Static Flocculated Flocculated
Impact Flocculated Flocculated-Dispersed
Kneading Flocculated Dispersed

Field compaction of soil

Once the borrow areas with desired soil were identified, the moisture content during
compaction and the dry density that should be achieved in the field are determined through the
laboratory tests. When the field dry density that should be achieved is established, the engineer
should develop an effective soil compaction procedure to achieve the desired dry unit weight
throughout the compacted soil mass.
The water content of the soil during compaction should be within the desired rage. The water
content of the soil as it exists in the borrow area can be altered before the soil is compacted.
Water content can be increased by spraying water on the soil after soil has been spread at the
site, where it is to be placed. The water content can be reduced by scarifying the soil surface at
the borrow area and letting water evaporate before soil is transported to the site.
Another important consideration during field soil compaction is the selection of suitable
compaction equipment for the soil compaction.
Once the compaction equipment are selected, the next step is to plan the field compaction
procedure and the quality control testing program.

Field compaction procedure

The field compaction is generally carried out in layers until the required height of the
compacted soil is reached. There are two main factors that are to be correctly selected for
effective field compaction of soil. They are: layer thickness (or lift) of the soil and the number
of roller passes for each layer. Obviously the two parameters are interrelated as the layer
thickness depends on the number of roller passes. However, it is required to establish the most
economical combination of the number of roller passes and the layer thickness to achieve the
required compaction level throughout the entire compacted soil mass.
The variation of the dry unit weight at a given depth with the number of roller passes at two
different moisture contents of a silty clay soil layer are shown in the following Figure. The dry
unit weight of a soil at a given moisture content will increase upto a certain point with the
number of roller passes. Beyond this point it will remain approximately constant. In most cases,
about 10 15 roller passes yield the maximum dry unit weight economically attainable.

The variation of the dry unit weight with the depth for different number of roller passes of a
vibratory drum roller on a 2.44m (8 ft) lift of a sandy soil is shown in the following Figure. It
is clearly observed that the dry unit weight at any depth increases with the number of roller
passes. However, the rate of increase of the dry unit weight gradually decreases after about
15 roller passes. Furthermore, the dry unit weight and hence the relative density (Dr) reach the
maximum values at a depth of about 0.5m below the ground surface and gradually decreases
at lesser depths. This is because of the lack of confining pressure towards the surface.

Once the relationship between the depth and the relative density (or dry unit weight) for a given
soil with a given number of roller passes is determined (Figure(a) below), it is easy to estimate
the approximate thickness of each lift, as shown in Figure (b) below.
Compaction quality assurance

Quality assurance during the compaction process is very important to achieve the required
compaction level of the soil fill. In most specifications for earthwork, it is specified to achieve
a certain degree of compaction (generally 90% to 95%) in terms of the maximum dry unit
weight determined from in the laboratory by either the standard or modified Proctor test. The
degree of compaction (R) is defined as follows:
dry( Field)
R(%) x100
dry(lab)
A systematically planned quality controlling program should be adopted by the contractor to
achieve the expected degree of compaction in the field. The important parameters to control
the end compaction level are the water content, layer thickness and the number of roller passes
per layer. However, quality assurance testing should be carried out to check the field degree of
compaction achieved. The frequency of quality assurance testing should be specified at the
beginning of the contract and may be specified in terms of the volume of the compacted soil
or the special distribution for a given lift. However, there are certain sites, where quality
assurance testing are carried out after the entire compaction work is over. This is not a good
practice, as poorly compacted soil at deep levels encountered at that stage may require
additional remedial measures to rectify. Therefore, the quality assurance testing should
continue during the compaction process as an when a certain volume of soil is compacted. The
special distribution and the depth of the test locations should be decided based on the
importance of the project, volume of the earthwork, type of the compacted soil, layer thickness,
results of the field trial compaction, configuration of the filled volume etc.
Commonly used methods to determine the field unit weight of the soil are:
i. Sand cone method;
ii. Rubber balloon method;
iii. Core cutter method; and
iv. Nuclear method.