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In soil compaction test, if a test result exceeds 100%, should engineers accept the result?

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Soil compaction is the process of increasing the soil density by reducing the volume of air
within the soil mass.

Soil compaction depends mainly on the degree of compaction and the amount of water
present for lubrication. Normally 2.5kg rammers and 4.5kg rammers are available for
compaction in laboratories and the maximum dry densities produced by these rammers cover
the range of dry density obtained by in-situ compaction plant.

Regarding the second factor of water content, it affects the compaction in the following ways.
In low water content, the soils are difficult to be compacted. When water content is increased
gradually, water will lubricate the soils and this facilitates the compaction operation.
However, at high water content, as an increasing proportion of soils is occupied by water, the
dry density decreases with an increase in water content.

For soil compaction tests, the dry density obtained from compaction carried out in-situ by
vibrating roller/vibrating plate is compared with the maximum dry density conducted in
laboratories using 2.5kg rammer of compaction with similar soils. In essence, the in-situ
compaction is compared with the compacting effort of using 2.5kg (or 4.5kg) rammer in
laboratories. In case the compaction test results indicate values exceeding 100%, it only
means that the in-situ compaction is more than that being carried out in laboratories which is
treated as the basic criterion for satisfactory degree of soil compaction. Therefore, the soil
results are acceptable in case compaction test results are over 100%. However, excessive
compaction poses a risk of fracturing granular soils resulting in the reduction of soil strength
parameters.

This question is taken from book named A Self Learning Manual Mastering Different
Fields of Civil Engineering Works (VC-Q-A-Method) by Vincent T. H. CHU.

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Do soil compaction test results over 100% mean over-compaction?

Posted in Soil Engineering | Email This Post

Soils can experience over-compaction if the compactor makes too many passes over it. In
fact, relative soil compaction test results over 100% do not necessarily mean over-
compaction because the relative compaction is based on the maximum dry density of the soil
obtained by the Proctor test and this does not necessarily refer to absolute maximum dry
density.

Over-compaction is considered undesirable because it may eventually create cracks in the

underlying compacted material so that it results in a decrease in density. Moreover, it causes
waste of machine power