A Laboratory Investigation of Vibratory Compaction of Dry Soils

Abstract

In arid regions where water may not be available for standard field compaction operations, compaction of soils at low moisture contents may be necessary. To determine whether these cohesive and cohesionless soils can be adequately compacted in a dry state, a laboratory vibratory soil compactor was built and used to conduct the investigation. After analyzing the effects of frequency of vibration, acceleration, static weight, and moisture content on compaction, a comparison of the unit weights obtained by Standard and vibratory methods was made. The test results indicate that cohesionless soils, if compacted dry, will yield dry densities greater than 100% Standard compaction. However, vibratory compaction of fine-grained and cohesive soils proved to be ineffective in obtaining high unit weights. It was also determined that the best frequency for compacting a soil was not a function of the soil alone, but of the soil and compactor together. In general the lighter compactor performed better than the heavier compactor at the lower frequencies.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1984
Accession Number
ADA140218

Entities

People

  • Cecil R. Webster

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil Engineering
  • Cohesionless Soils
  • Cohesive Soils
  • Construction
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Frequency
  • Measurement
  • Moisture Content
  • Resonant Frequency
  • Soil Compaction
  • Soil Mechanics
  • Soils
  • Standards
  • United States
  • Vibration
  • Water Supplies

Fields of Study

  • Agricultural and Food sciences

Readers

  • Pavement Materials Engineering.
  • Structural Dynamics.