Soil Compaction Concepts
Soil Compaction is a process during which soil density is increased by applying mechanical forces. the main purpose of soil compaction is to improve soil stability and its beating capacity. To be more precise compaction is a rearrangement of soil particles resulting in soil densification.
soil compaction objectives
- Reduction of void ratio
- Increase of load bearing capacities
- Improve the stability of soil slopes
- Reducing the amount of water seepage contraction and swelling
Compaction methods
Depending on the nature of compacting load, compaction methods can be divided into two main categories. In static compaction a dead weight is used to densify the soil layers. Static force is only effective for upper soil layers and cannot reach deep layers. Static force can be applied either by Kneading and or Pressure. On the other hand, in vibratory method a rotating eccentric weight deliver a rapid sequence of impacts to the surfaces. As a result, vibratory compaction can influence on deeper layers.
Compaction Equipment
Choosing the right compaction equipment require a degree of knowledge and experience. In some cases, for special projects with a vast scale, designing a tailored compaction tool might be economically reasonable. But for general purposes typical equipment are listed as bellow:
- Rollers
- Rammers
- Dynamic compactors
Soil compaction is a delicate specialty which affect the overall cost of construction project. As a result it cannot be discussed in one short article. The consideration of each method has covered in a separate article in a greater depth. We have also provided some video lesson about technical details of soil compaction in both practical projects and numerical modeling.
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