Comparison of gyratory compaction effect on coarse and fine-grained soils

Abstract

Filling materials should have high strength and required gradation. It is important to determine properties of the filling material in the laboratory to satisfy required codes. The optimum water content and maximum dry unit weight can be designated by performing Proctor tests, which have been used for nearly a century. The impact loads are used to compress the soil in an inflexible mold in Proctor tests, but in reality, field compaction methods rely on a combination of kneading, vibration, and augmented normal pressures to achieve required densities in field. In this study, firstly standard proctor tests, modified proctor tests and Supervave Gyratory Compaction tests were conducted on different soil types. Then the compression curves were compared and the statistical analysis (ANOVA) were performed to find out the best methodology. Dry unit weight obtained using the SGC were compared with the maximum dry unit weight obtained using laboratory impact methods. The results showed that soil samples compacted with a gyratory compactor give the same performance over impact compaction methods.