Study on Compaction Characteristics of Fine-Grained Soil

Compaction is the process by which mechanical energy is used to bring the densification and stabilization of the soil matrix giving the soil enough strength. The compaction characteristics can be obtained by performing Proctor Tests with varying compactive efforts. The fruitful compaction of soil is imperative toward the stability and function of structures. It is observed through different literature works that the existing relationships between compaction characteristics and physical properties of fine-grained soil, like plastic limit, have not been palatable as the plastic limit obtained from the conventional thread rolling method is prone to human error. So, an endeavor has been made to develop relations relating optimum moisture content and maximum dry unit weight with plastic limit, determined by cone penetration method, which eliminates its inclination toward human error. It has been shown in previous works that the 3.92 N-30° cone can be used to determine the plastic limit of soil. These relationships with the plastic limit have been found to relate very well with the optimum moisture content and maximum dry unit weight. Moreover, an effort has been made in this work to develop correlations between maximum dry unit weight and optimum moisture content with different compaction energy and other physical properties such as plastic limit, plasticity index, and degree of saturation at the maximum dry unit weight.