A TECHNICAL REPORT ON DIFFERENT
FIELD COMPACTING METHODS AND
THEIR SUITABILITY
PRESENTED BY:
ARKAROOP GHOSH
B. TECH CIVIL ENGINEERING
3RD YEAR ( 5th SEM )
(2023-24)
UNIVERSITY ROLL NUMBER: 18701321006
PAPER NAME: SOIL MECHANICS – II
PAPER CODE: [ CE(PC)504 ]
CONTENTS:
o Acknowledgements
o Introduction
o Oxygen Deficit – A Brief Description
o Streeter Phelps Equation
o Applications In Real Life
o Concluding Remarks
o References
o Plagiarism Report
ABSTRACT :
Soil compaction is the process where soil particles are forced to more closely by
reducing air voids. This can be achieved by applying some mechanical energy
on soil fill.
Field compaction of soil is an important and integral activity of virtually any
construction project, be it a road construction project, an industrial construction
project or a building construction project. Field compaction is commonly
achieved by rolling, ramming or vibrating.
Soil compaction occurs when soil particles are pressed together, reducing pore
space between them . Heavily compacted soils contain few large pores, less
total pore volume and, consequently, a greater density.
A compacted soil has a reduced rate of both water infiltration and drainage. This
happens because large pores more effectively move water downward through
the soil than smaller pores.
In addition, the exchange of gases slows down in compacted soils, causing an
increase in the likelihood of aeration-related problems. Finally, while soil
compaction increases soil strength – the ability of soil to resist being moved by
an applied force – a compacted soil also means roots must exert greater force to
penetrate the compacted layer.
Soil compaction changes pore space size, distribution and soil strength. One
way to quantify the change is by measuring the bulk density. As the pore space
decreases within a soil, the bulk density increases. Soils with a higher
percentage of clay and silt, which naturally have more pore space, have a lower
bulk density than sandier soils.
INTRODUCTION :
Construction of many structures require stabilisation of the soil mass , i.e
improvement of its engineering properties. There are various methods of soil
stabilisation, the most common being the mechanical stabilisation and the
simplest technique of mechanical stabilisation is compaction.
In this project report, we will be discussing about Different Field Compacting
Methods And Their Suitability.
DIAGRAM SHOWING COMPACTION OF SOIL
A BRIEF DISCUSSION OF DIFFERENT FIELD
COMPACTING METHODS :
The various equipments required in field compaction are
Smooth wheeled roller - A smooth-wheel roller generally consists of three
wheels. There are two large wheels in the rare part and one small in the
front. The weight of smooth wheel roller varies from 2 to 15 tons. The roller
is operated by internal combustion engine. There is another version of
smooth wheel roller known as tandem smooth wheel roller. It consists of
only two drums: one at front part and another at rear part. Smooth wheeled
rollers mostly suited to seal the surface of the fill at the end of day’s work to
provide a smooth surface to quickly drain the rain water.
DIAGRAM OF SMOOTH WHEELED ROLLER
They are not suitable for deep layers of soil such as uniform sands and silty
sands because the resulting compaction pressures induced are low. In
addition, these rollers cause stratification in deep layers due to none-uniform
compaction.
They are used to compact well-graded coarse grained soils for use in
highway base courses and non – plastic fine-grained soils.
Sheep foot roller - Sheep foot rollers are named from sheep because, in
ancient times, a flock of sheep were used to compact a newly formed fill.
The roller is similar to the smooth wheel roller except that it contains
numerous projecting feet about 200 mm to 250 mm long with an end area of
40 to 65 cm2. The wheels of the roller consist of hollow drums and can be
filled with water and ballasts to increase their weight. The drums are
mounted on a steel frame.
DIAGRAM OF SHEEP FOOT ROLLER
Sheep foot rollers are available both as a self-propelled unit or a towed unit.
The projections of the roller penetrate the soil layers during rolling and cause
compaction. During rolling the weight of roller is transmitted to fill through
projecting feet.
The pressure imposed range from 7 to 42 kg /cm2. These rollers are suitable
for both plastic and nonplastic fine-grained soils and for coarse-grained soils
with more than 20% fines.
The depth of the layer being compacted depends on the length of projection
and weight of the roller. Depending upon the size of the roller the layer
thickness varies from 15 cm to 30 cm. In general, the thickness of the layer
compacted should not be 5 cm more than the length of the projection.
Vibratory roller - In vibratory rollers a vibrator mounted on a drum. These
rollers are available both in the form of pneumatic tired type of smooth
wheel type. In smooth wheel type, a separate motor drives an arrangement
of eccentric weights to create high frequency, low amplitude and up and
down oscillations of the drum.
DIAGRAM OF VIBRATORY ROLLER
The roller are suitable for compacting granular soils with no fines where
layers up to 1 m in thickness can be contacted. If the soil contains
appreciable fines, the layer thickness is to be reduced. In the pneumatic type
of vibratory compactor, a separate vibrating unit is attached to the wheel
axle. The ballast box suspended separately from the axle so that it does not
vibrate. These compactors are suitable for compacting granular soils with
thickness of layer about 30 cm. Vibratory compactors can compact the
granular soil to a very high maximum dry density.
Impact rammers - Impact rammers consist of a block of iron about 3 to 5
kg wooden rod. The rammer is lifted by about 30 cm and dropped on the
soil to be compacted. A mechanical rammer is operated by compressed air
gasoline power. It is much heavier and weighs 30 to 150 kg.
Mechanical rammers have been used up to a weight of 1000 kg. Power
controlled or manually operated impact rammers are used where the area to
be compacted are small, the area is inaccessible and use of large equipment
is not justified. They are also used for compacting backfill behind retaining
walls or small trenches. They can be used for all types of soils.
DIAGRAM OF IMPACT RAMMER
Vibrating Plates - In this system, there are numbers of smaller plates, each
plate are vibrated by a separate vibrating unit. Hand operated vibrating plates
are also available. these compactors are suitable for compacting soils having
smaller thickness.
DIAGRAM OF VIBRATING PLATES
The main use of vibrating plates is to compact granular base courses for
highways and runways where the thickness of layers is small. Vibrating
plates are suitable to coarse-grained soils containing up to 12 % fines.
Pneumatic Roller - Pneumatic rollers are widely used for compaction of sub
grades, bases and bituminous mixes. This type of compaction equipment are
suitable for soft base materials or layers of loose soil and closely grained
sands. It can be used for compaction of the cohesive soils with the moisture
content of 2-4% below the plastic limit. It is very effective for bituminous
layers where the design mix has a high content of fines. These rollers are
also called as rubber tyred rollers.
DIAGRAM OF PNEUMATIC ROLLER
CONCLUSION :
Field compaction is an important and integral activity of virtually any
construction project, be it a road construction project, an industrial
construction project or a building construction project. Field compaction is
commonly achieved by rolling, ramming or vibrating.
There are various methods of soil stabilisation, the most common being the
mechanical stabilisation and the simplest technique of mechanical
stabilisation is compaction. Field compaction is an important and integral
activity of virtually any construction project, be it a road construction
project, an industrial construction project or a building construction project.
Field compaction is commonly achieved by rolling, ramming or vibrating.
There are some other methods as well which are not as common as the
abovementioned ones.
Of these, the most commonly or widely used method is rolling and most
commonly seen rolling equipment is the ordinary smooth wheeled roller.
Few other commonly used rolling equipments are pneumatic tyred rollers,
sheep foot rollers etc. Smooth wheeled rollers are widely used for roadwork
or pavement construction work. They are quite suitable for compacting
layers of broken stones such as aggregates base or sub-base courses in road
or other pavements. They can also very well be used for compacting sand
gravels, gravels and soil with medium cohesion. However, smooth wheeled
rollers are not suitable for cohesive soils like clay or soils with high clay
content.
Compaction by vibration is most suitable for cohesionless soils such as sand,
sand gravel or soils with high percent of sand having no or negligible
cohesion. Vibrating compaction equipments are basically vibrators mounted
in plates, rollers etc. and are accordingly called plate vibrators, vibrating or
vibro-rollers and so on1. Another type of equipment equally suitable for
cohesionless soils is the rubber tyred roller.
Another method of field compaction is ramming which is normally adopted
for compacting soils in confined areas. In some occasions manual ramming
or tamping also is performed, especially in small portions where mechanical
ramming is not convenient or in compacting foundation soils of ordinary
small buildings and so on. Mechanical rammers may be of weight dropping
type, pneumatic type, combustion type etc. Ramming is however not a
suitable option for compacting large areas.
Pneumatic tyred rollers are suitable for both cohesive as well as cohesionless
soils.
REFERENCES :
[Link] OF SOIL MECHANICS AND FOUNDATION
ENGINEERING (GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING SERIES) BY
V.N.S. MURTHY, 2008, CBS PUBLISHERS, NEW DELHI.
2. PRINCIPLES OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING BY B.M. DAS ,
2015, PEARSON PUBLICATION, NEW DELHI.
3. BASIC AND APPLIED SOIL MECHANICS BY GOPAL RANJAN &
A.S.R. RAO, 2013, NEW AGE INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS, NEW
DELHI.
THANK YOU
