DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBUST COMPACTION DEVICE FOR LABORATORY SOIL COMPACTION TEST
The commonly used laboratory soil compaction test device is the Proctor. This device provides soil compaction test results for the sizes and weights of 1990s-era compaction equipment which are smaller than the current equipment that induce larger compactive energy. Hence, Department of Transportation in the State of Wisconsin (WisDOT) officials recommended increasing the slice thickness of 20 mm to a maximum allowable slice thickness to reduce construction time and total cost. This recommendation cannot be handled by the Proctor device which employs customized mould. There is therefore a need to design and fabricate a robust device capable of test-compacting variable soil slice thicknesses at varying compactive energies. International Standards (ISO) method of general machinery principle of design was adopted to design and fabricate the components. This includes a 200 mm diameter compactor, to compact the soil samples; a mould of 201 mm diameter, 700 mm high, which holds the soil slices during compaction; a steel rod of length 1190 mm, which holds and directs the compactor during compaction and a removable plate of diameter 200 mm, situated below the compactor, distributes the compactive efforts evenly on the soil specimen. The device was tested by compacting sandy loam soil whose index properties were pre-determined. Compaction results showed that compaction, ?Z increased with increasing cumulative compactive effort, Ec; the degree of compaction, ?Z/Z decreased with increasing Ec because, the total loading, Z increased faster than ?Z; ?Z/Z decreased with increasing antecedent soil bulk density and with increasing degree of soil water saturation, Se and ??Z/Z decreased with increasing soil slice thickness, z. The results agree with the notional variations of compaction. It is recommended that the design of the device�s extruding component be improved because it was difficult to remove the compacted soil samples from the mould after compaction.
Authors : Audu, D., Balogun, O.S., Busari, R.A., Fadeyibi, A., Adebayo, K.R.
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 11(1) Date Uploaded : 7th May 2025