11/18

Dynamic consolidation test in centrifuge

L’essai de consolidation dynamique en centrifuge

M.MIKASA, Professor of Civil Engineering, Setsunan University, Neyagawa, Japan

N.TAKADA, Professor of Civil Engineering, O s a k a City University, Osaka, Japan
A . O H S H I M A , Research Associate of Civil Engineering, O s a k a City University, Osaka, Japan

S Y N O P S IS D y n a m ic c o n s o lid a tio n o r h e a v y t a m p in g w a s s im u la te d in a c e n t r ifu g e to o b ta in b a s ic d a ta o f ra m p e n e tr a ­

tion in to the g ro u n d an d d e fo r m a t io n o f a sa n d y g ro u n d u n d e r a v a r ie t y o f ta m p in g c o n d itio n s. T h e m o d e l gro u n d w a s
d e sig n e d a s a s e m i- c y lin d r ic a l c o lu m n , the c e n te r o f w h ich w a s ta m p e d b y a ra m . T h e v e r t ic a l fro n t fa c e o f the m o d e l
grou n d c o n t a c t s a g la s s p la te th ro u gh w h ic h the g ro u n d d e fo r m a t io n w a s o b se rve d . M a in c o n c lu s io n s are : 1) ram p e n e tr a ­
tion w a s in p ro p o rtio n to the sq u a re ro o t o f the n u m b e r o f ra m b lo w s and 2) w a s g o v e r n e d b y ra m m o m e n tu m , 3) gro u n d
d e fo r m a t io n due to ra m p e n e tr a tio n w a s ra th e r lim ite d in a s p h e r ic a l zo n e a ro u n d the b o tto m o f t a m p in g hole, and 4) the
in c re a se in g ro u n d d e n s ity w a s g o v e r n e d by the to t a l t a m p in g e n e rgy.

IN T R O D U C T IO N fa c e o f the m o d e l g ro u n d is su p p o rte d by a te m p e re d g la s s
p la te , 10m m th ic k , w h ic h a g a in is c o v e re d and g u a rd e d by
In Jap an , th e re h a v e b een m a n y c a s e s w h e re d y n a m ic c o n ­ a te m p e re d c o m p o s ite g la s s p la te (1 0 m m + 0 .5 m m v in y l
s o lid a t io n w a s s u c c e s s fu lly a p p lie d to im p ro v e sa n d y and film + 6 m m ) b u ilt in a r ig id a lu m in u m fra m e .
g r a v e ly grou n d s. H o w e v e r, the w o rk c o n d itio n s in the c u r ­
rent d e sig n p ro ce d u re , su c h a s ram m a ss, ram d ro p h e igh t, A s an e f f e c t iv e m e a su re to e lim in a te the fr ic tio n b e tw ee n
n u m b e r o f b lo w s a t a t a m p in g p o in t an d d is t a n c e b e tw e e n the g la s s p la te and the so il, the g la s s p la te w as c o a te d
t a m p in g p o in ts, h a v e been d e te rm in e d o n ly e m p ir ic a lly , b e ­ w ith a w e t thin a g a r film . T h is film a ls o se rv e d a s a
ca u se fie ld in st r u m e n t a tio n s and m e a s u re m e n ts su ch as b a se on w h ic h c r o s s m a rk e rs are p a ste d and a g r id Is
se tt le m e n t g a g e , in c lin o m e te r, p re s su r e m e te r an d d y n a m ic p rin te d by s p r a y in g c o lo r p a in t th ro u gh a 8 m m m esh (cf.
so u n d in g h a v e n o t y e t p ro d u ce d s u ffic ie n t d a ta to c la r if y F ig . 6).
the gro u n d b e h a v io r u n der th is v io le n t t a m p in g m etho d.
T h e ra m is w o u n d up b y an e le c t r ic m o to r by m e a n s o f a
In su ch s it u a tio n , w e have re c e n t ly s ta r t e d a s e rie s o f s t r in g to a p re d e te rm in e d h e igh t, and then a u t o m a t ic a lly
c e n t r ifu g e m o d e l te st o f d y n a m ic c o n s o lid a tio n (T a k a d a et re le a se d to d ro p a lo n g a g u id e p e rp e n d ic u la r to the m o d e l
al 1987, M ik a s a e t a l 1988, O h s h im a e t a l 1988) to o b ta in g ro u n d t ill it b lo w s the p e n e tr a tio n rod. T h e ra m han ge r,
b a sic d a ta to se rv e fo r the o p tim u m d e sig n o f t h is gro u n d a f t e r r e le a s in g the ram , is k e p t w ou n d up till it c o n t a c t s
im p ro v in g m e th o d u n d e r g iv e n c o n d itio n s. The e ffe c ts of the u p p e r lim it sw itc h , w h ic h m akes the m o to r ro ta te
t a m p in g c o n d itio n s (ra m m a ss, d ro p h e ig h t an d n u m b e r o f re v e rse ly . T h e n the h a n g e r d e sc e n d s t ill it c o n t a c t s the
b lo w s) and gro u n d c o n d itio n s (k ind o f s o ils, s o il d e n s ity and lo w e r lim it s w itc h , w h ic h m a k e s the h a n g e r h o ld the ram
grou n d w a t e r le v e l) on the g ro u n d im p ro v e m e n t are b e in g and b e w o u n d up a ga in . T h e p e n e tr a tio n o f the rod is
stu d ie d. m e a su re d v is u a lly b y the h e lp o f a s tr o b o -fla s h .

T h is p a p e r d is c u s s e s the g ro u n d b e h a v io r u n der t a m p in g Th e c e n t r ifu g e is M a r k 5 in O s a k a C i t y U n iv e r s it y h a v in g a

to g e th e r w ith s o m e fin d in g s in re la tio n to the ra m p e n e tr a ­ 2.56m n o m in a l ra d iu s r o t o r d riv e n b y a 2 2 K W in d u c tio n
tion in to the grou n d . T h e d e fo r m a t io n and c o m p a c tio n o f m o to r; the m a x im u m c e n t r ifu g a l a c c e le r a t io n b e in g 200g.
the gro u n d a s a w h o le are a ls o re fe rre d to. T h e r o t a tio n is c o n t r o lle d by m e a n s o f fre q u e n c y co n tro l.

TEST APPARATUS

The p ro to ty p e g ro u n d is a ssu m e d a s an a x i- s y m m e t r ic a l
c y lin d r ic a l c o lu m n , h a lf o f w h ic h is s im u la te d in a s e m i-
c y lin d r ic a l c o lu m n , 30 cm in d ia m e t e r an d 20 cm in h eigh t.
T h e v e r t ic a l c r o s s -s e c t io n o f the m o d e l gro u n d in c lu d in g its
c e n te r a x is is s u p p o rte d by a g la s s p la te , th ro u gh w h ich the
g ro u n d d e fo r m a t io n can be o b se rve d . To o b se rv e the
g ro u n d d e fo r m a t io n c le a r ly , ra m b lo w s a re g iv e n to the
grou n d s u r fa c e th ro u gh a sh o rt s e m i- c y lin d r ic a l w o o d en
p e n e tra tio n rod, w e ig h in g 13.5g, p la c e d a t the c e n t e r o f the
grou n d s u r fa c e ( F i g . l ) . T h e in e r tia o f th is rod w a s a s c e r ­
ta in e d not to a f f e c t te st re s u lts ( M ik a s a e t al 1988).

Th e s p e c im e n box is m ad e o f a lu m in u m a llo y , in w h ic h a
s e m i- c ir c u la r s te e l c y lin d e r, 15cm in ra d iu s and 25 cm in
he ight, is in s t a lle d to h o ld the m od e l grou n d . T h e fro n t

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T ab le I T e st Conditions and R esu lts

m pMHp Ap
El Dr N P3 Et m P'vP ^3 T p^
100 tfm 20t»5m 4 m a 78% 83 8,500 tf-m I98.0tm/s 96 485.0 tm/s/m
10t*20m 78 78 15,600 198.0 94 479.9
200 20t*10m 72 49 9,800 280.0 49 490.0
40tx5m 78 31 6,200 396.0 25 495.0
16t»25m 70 30 12,000 354.2 30 485.0
20t»20m 74 23 9,200 396.0 24 485.0
40tM0m 76 15.5 6,200 560.0 12 485.0
80t*5m 73 7 2,800 792.0 6 485.0
800 40t*20m 75 7 5,600 792.0 6 485.0
BOtxiOm '/ 76 4.5 3,600 1120.0 3.5 523.8
400 20tx20m 9.8 76 157 62,800 396.0 157 507.3
E] :Energy per one blow (=mP'g H p) :Total energy (=E] n P3>
A p :Cross sectional area of ram P P : Ram momentum (=-mp-V2-gHp )
Fig.2 Model Setup Npj :Number of blows for 3 m Npj : Corrected N P3
penetration

Fig.2 shows a setup of the model ground and the ram gravitational field. In a centrifuge, however, the released
operating device. ram, for an observer outside the centrifuge, flies at a cer­
tain velocity along a straight line tangent to the circle on
which the ram has been rotating and will not fall normal
to the model ground. Thus the ram must be guided in the
SOIL PROPERTIES radial direction to resist the Coriolis force.

The prototype material was assumed as a blasted and
crushed soft rock with a small fraction of fine particles, a
candidate material for the enormous fill of Kansai Interna­
tional Airport, which is now being constructed in Osaka
Bay. The model material, therefore, was chosen as a clean
sand finer than 2mm, mixed with a weathered granite, 75%
finer than 0.075mm, by 5.4% at dry mass. Its uniformity
coefficient is 3.2 and maximum dry density is 1.69t/m3 at
the optimum water content of 8.1%. TTie minimum dry
density is 1.36t/m3, which was determined as follows: air
dried soil is poured in a very loose state to 10cm in depth
in a cylinder of 12cm in diameter, loaded by a 960g brass
disc and saturated slowly from its bottom.
The ram drop height should be determined taking into con­
sideration that the centrifugal forces at both the ram
release radius, r , , and the ram blow radius, r2, are d if­
ferent. In a centrifuge rotating at oi rad/s, a ram having
a mass mm at a radius r is subjected to a centrifugal
force of mm r to2. During the movement along the guide
from r, to r2, the model ram gains a kinetic energy
increment mm o)2(r.f- r,3 )/2, which should equal to the
kinetic energy of the ram having prototype velocity, vp , at
the moment of ram blow, that is mm ngHp/n. Thus the
ram release radius, r , , Is expressed by
ri = \fi} ~ (2g/U32)/Hp (1)

In the present model tests, the radius r2 was taken at the

MODEL PREPARATION AND TEST PROCEDURE
The model ground, 20cm thick, was prepared in four layers,
each being compacted by a ram at the optimum water
content; the number of blows and ram mass were deter­
mined from preliminary compaction tests to obtain the
desired density. During compaction, the front face of the
model ground was covered by a hard aluminum alloy plate,
which, after compaction, was replaced by the glass plate
coated with agar film on which markers and grid were
prepared as already explained. Then, the ram operating
device and the penetration rod were installed.
top of the penetration rod. The increase of ra in Eq.(l)
due to ram penetration was neglected, and r! was kept
constant throughout the test.
ON RAM PENETRATION
Since preliminary "modeling of models" test series proved
the validity of the similarity rule for the centrifuge test of
dynamic consolidation (Mikasa et al 1988), all test results
obtained in 75g in this paper will be presented in prototype
scale using the similarity rule:

The model set up in the centrifuge was put In a predeter­ length ! Lp — 75 L|^, area ^p ~ ^ ^m
mined centrifugal acceleration field for about 10min allow­
volume : Vp ■ 753Vm , mass nip = 75
ing the settlement under its selfwelght before ram blows
were applied. During test, number of blows, penetration of potential energy : Ep = 753Em
the rod and ground surface settlement were recorded and
photographs were taken. All the tests were terminated where subscript p and m designate prototype and model,
when the penetration came to 3m in the prototype scale. respectively.

Table I is the list of the present test series conducted un­

RAM DROP HEIGHT IN CENTRIFUGE
In a l/n scaled model in an imaginary stationary ng
gravitational field (e.g. on a big planet), during the free
fall from a drop height Hm (=Hp/n, where Hp is the
prototype drop height on the earth), the ram would gain
the same velocity as that of the prototype ram in a lg
der the following conditions: nominal relative density of the
ground is 75%; centrifugal acceleration is 75g; prototype
ram diameter, Dp, is 2.25m, ram base area, Ap, is 4m2
and final ram penetration, Sp, is 3m.
Figs.3(l), (2) and (3) show ram penetration, Sp, against the
number of blows, N (In square root scale), for the three
cases where prototype kinetic energies per one blow, E ,,

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Num ber o f blows N Num ber o f blows N Num ber o f blows N

Flg.3 i/N-Sp Relations for Different One Blow Energy, E,

are 200, 400 and 800tfm, respectively. All v'TC-Sp relations 2.0
are linear as conformed to many field measurements. From
these figures, we find that a combination of larger ram 8
n p 3“;
mass and smaller drop height under the same kinetic energy mp = 10 t
of one blow requires less number of blows and smaller total
energy to produce a certain penetration. 30
7I6t
43
Fig.4 shows the total energy required for Sp=3m, Et = 1.0 23
5 --------- -------- < )20 t
mpgHpNpg, plotted against ram drop height for different ^ 1
ram mass. Since Et does not change appreciably for a 1 15.5
<"s--------
certain ram mass, the number of blow to get Sp=3m >40t
changes almost inversely proportional to ram drop height. 5
^80t
The total energy to get Sp=3m, E t, is much influenced by
the ram mass.
10 20 30
Fig.5 shows three sets of /N-Sp relations, each set having
D rop height H p (m)
the same ram momentum at blow, most of which appear in
Figs.3(l)-(3), but corrected taking the Intersection of ^R-Sp Fig.4 Relation of Total Energy and Drop Height for Different
straight lines with the Sp=0 line as N=0. Corrected N Ram Mass
values for Sp=3m, Npg, are presented in Table 1. The in­
crease of ram momentum two times decreases the number
of blows to get Sp=3m one-fourth. Therefore the value
Num ber o f blows N
mpVp • \/N is constant irrespective of ram mass and drop
height. The ram momentum for the unit area of ram base 10
1 I— > i .ili i i -I— i—
multiplied by square root of number of blows for Sp=3m, ^ 0 1"
Ram
(mpVp/Ap)-\/Np3, presented in Table I, shows the same value O 10tx20m-i momentum
V \ \ c e
of 485 tm /s/m 2 for all the tests with a few exceptions. E • 20t»5m -1 198tm/s -
These results, together with the linear \/R-Sp relation, bring A 20tx20m-i
up- \ ^
forth the following relation: ▲ 40tx5m -J 396
V
O 40tx20m, 792
Sp - tt*( nip Vp/Ap )•yfT ) ♦ 80t*5m J
\ * °°°-< Ox
- Qt* V 2g (mp /Ap )-\/Hp N (2)
8.
where a is a constant depending on the ground conditions. & 2. °\
V
o \
In the present tests, a Is determined as follows:

3 [m] = 0-485 [tm/s/maj

o
£
)
\
\ 5'0.
0xn
° \
a = 6.2-10'3 [<m3/t)s] (3) 1 . .. __1__1__I I --- 1
---1
—

Eq.(2) shows that ram mass is the predominant factor in

ram penetration followed by both drop height and number Fig.5 v/R-Sp Relations for Different Ram Momentum
of blows.
under the conditions: c e n trifu g a l accele ratio n is 75g;
Dm =3cm (Dp=2.25m); mm=47.8g (mp=20t); Hm=29.8cm (Hp=
20m). The part of the ground that deformed appreciably
GROUND DEFORMATION by ram penetration is rather limited in a small spherical
zone around the bottom of the tamping hole, about 4Dm In
F ig .6 shows a view of a tested model ground of D r =75% depth. This pattern of ground deformation was always ob-

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served irrespective of ram mass or drop height.

Fig.7 compares the ground surface settlement at S0=3m

before and after a test in which mp=20t, Hp=20 m and
Ap=4m2 with that by a static penetration test using
penetration rod of the same shape and area Ap=4m2. The
dynamic penetration generated a considerable settlement
over the whole model ground which must have been
produced by the shock or vibration due to tamping, whereas
the static penetration generated much less settlement ex­
cept near the penetration rod.

Fig.8 shows the plots of the volume reduction of the

ground against the total tamping energy when the ram
penetration reached 3m. The volume reduction was ob­
tained by integrating the ground surface settlement including
the volume of tamping hole and subtracting the settlement
by selfweight consolidation before tamping (around 7.5cm in
prototype scale). The figure indicates that the volume
reduction depends on the tamping energy rather than on the
ram momentum; no tendency is found that larger ram
Fig.6 Ground Deformation
mass or larger ram momentum works effectively to compact
the ground in spite of the clear effect of those factors on
ram penetration. The factors governing the ground compac­
tion besides the total compacting energy are difficult to be
specified from Fig.8, and should be looked for in further
studies.

CONCLUSIONS

The test results lead to the following conclusions:

1) Ram penetration into the ground always shows linear
relationship to the square root of number of ram blows.
2) The ram mass per unit area of ram base is the pre­ Prototype distance (m)
dominant factor on ram penetration into the ground. The (1) Dynamic Compaction
number of blows vs. ram penetration relationship is deter­
mined by the ram momentum at blow.
3) Predominant factor on ground compaction is the applied
total energy.
4) The part of the ground that compacted remarkably by
ram penetration Is rather limited in a small spherical zone
around the bottom of the tamping hole, but an appreciable
overall ground settlement was also observed, in contrast to
the static penetration that caused settlement only around
the penetration rod.

Prototype distance (m)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT (2) Static Penetration

The authors wish to thank Mr. M.lkeda of Marine Eng. Co. Fig.7 Comparison of Ground Settlement
Ltd., Mr. I.Takeuchi of Ohbayashi Construction Co. Ltd.,
and Mr. T.Fujita of West Japan Railway Co. Ltd. for their
cooperation. 40 ~!r

nl6t 710t
25m 20m
REFERENCES 020t
20m
N .T akada, I.T akeuchi, M .M ikasa and M .lkeda (1987). 10,m P ' 0
/v 40t
Centrifuge model test on dynamic consolidation (1st 20 t 5m
report), Proc. of 42th Annual Convention of JSCE, 80 <>401
Vol.III, pp. 16-17, (in Japanese). lOni/ 20m
/ 201A 'AlOOtfm
/ 5m, ,-V20t
10m
M .M ikasa, N .T akada, M .lkeda and I.T akeuchi (1988). V 200
Centrifuge model test of dynamic consolidation, Proc. O400
of Int. Conf. on Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling, ,-e>sot LO 800
pp. 185-192. 5m I
1.0 2.0
AOhshlm a, N.Takada, T.Fujita, Y.Kotani and M.lkeda (1988). Total energy Et (xio'tf-m)
Centrifuge model test on dynamic consolidation (2nd
report), Proc. of 23th Annual Convention of JSSMFE, Fig.8 Relation of Total Energy and Volume Reduction of
Vol.2, pp.2049-2052, (in Japanese). Ground

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