Isofi Density and Stabititg
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HIGHWAY RESEARCH BOARD Bulletin 93 iSofI Density and Stabititg National Academy of Sciences— National Research Council II HIGHWAY RESEARCH BOARD Officers and Members of the Executive Committee 1954 OFFICERS G. DONALD KENNEDY, Chairman K. B. WOODS, Vice Chairman FRED BURGGRAF, Director ELMER M. WARD, Assistant Director Executive Committee FRANCIS V. DU PONT, Commissioner, Bureau of Public Roads HAL H. HALE, Executive Secretary, American Association of State Highway Officials Louis JORDAN, Executive Secretary, Division of Engineering and Industrial Re• search, National Research Council R. H. BALDOCK, State Highway Engineer, Oregon State Highway Commission PYKE JOHNSON, Consultant, Automotive Safety Foundation G. DONALD KENNEDY, Executive Vice President, Portland Cement Association 0. L. KiPP, Assistant Commissioner and Chief Engineer, Minnesota Department of Highways BURTON W. MARSH, Director, Safety and Traffic Engineering Department, Ameri• can Automobile Association C. H. SCHOLER, Head, Applied Mechanics Department, Kansas State College REX M. WHITTON, Chief Engineer, Missouri State Highway Department K. B. WOODS, Director, Joint Highway Research Project, Purdue University Editorial Staff FRED BURGGRAF ELMER M. WARD W. J. MILLER 2101 Constitution Avenue Washington 25, D. C. The opinions and conclusions expiessed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessaiily those of the Highway Research Board HIGHWAY RESEARCH BOARD BuUetin 93 Sof I Density and StahiUty PRESENTED AT THE Thirty-Third Annual Meeting January 12-15, 1954 1954 Washington, D. C. Department of Soils Frank R. Olmstead, Chairman; Chief, Soils Section, Bureau of Public Roads COMMITTEE ON COMPACTION OF EMBANKMENTS, SUBGRADES AND BASES L.D. Hicks, Chairman; Chief Soils Engineer North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission W. F. Abercrombie, State Highway Department of Georgia Charles W. Allen, Research Engineer, Ohio Department of Highways W. H. Campen, Manager, Omaha Testing Laboratories Miles D. Catton, Assistant to the Vice President for Research and Development, Research and Development Laboratories, Portland Cement Association, Chicago C. A. Hogentogler, Jr., 6104 River Road, Washington 16, D. C. O.J. Porter, 415 Frelinghuysen Avenue, Newark, New Jersey Thomas B. Prlngle, Office, Chief of Engineers, Department of the Army L. C. Ritter, c/o Howard Jansen, Inc., 619 North Washington Street, Naperville, Illinoij James R. Schuyler, Assistant District Engineer, Soils and Subdrainage Section, New Jersey State Highway Department T. E. Shelburne, Director of Research, Virginia Department of Highways, Thorton Hall,! University of Virginia S. E. Sime, Senior Hi^way Engineer, Bureau of Public Roads W. T. Spencer, Soils Engineer, State Highway Commission of Indiana, 11 Contents SELECTION OF DENSITIES FOR SUBGRADES AND FLEXIBLE-BASE MATERIALS Chester McDowell — - - 1 Appendix Preparation of Soil and Flexible Base Material 3 General Laboratory Compaction Test for Moisture- Density Relations for Soils 6 Use of Compaction Ratio for Selection of Densities for Subgrades and Flexible Bases 9 Discussion W.H. Campen - 14 Chester McDowell, Closure 14 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DENSITY AND STABILITY OF SUBGRADE SOILS H.B. Seed and Carl L. Monismith 16 Discussion Robert Horonjeff 30 W.H. Campen — 31 H. B. Seed and C. L. Monismith, Closure 32 EFFECT OF COMPACTION METHOD ON STABILITY AND SWELL PRESSURE OF SOILS H. B. Seed, Raymond Lundgren, and Clarence K. Chan 33 NEW METHOD FOR MEASURING IN-PLACE DENSITY OF SOILS AND GRANULAR MATERIALS Carl E. Minor and Herbert W. Humphres 49 Appendix A: Design and Operation Procedure 55 Appendix B: Results of Ejqperiments 58 Discussion Alfred W. Maner - 60 EFFECT OF REPEATED LOAD APPLICATION ON SOIL COMPACTION EFFICIENCY George F. Sowers and C. M. Kennedy III 61 111 Selection of Densities for Subgrades and Flexible-Base Materials CHESTER MCDOWELL, senior Soils Engineer Texas Highway Department # THE need for a realistic method of se- compaction with so little compactive ef• lectii^, from tests, densities which are fort, and the material is so loose after comparable to ideal field conditions has rolling that our field forces often do not led to the use of the term "compaction consider such compaction as satisfactory. ratio. " It expresses that portion of the Hence, there has been a disturbing trend possible densificatlon that it is desirable toward relying solely upon visual inspec• to accomplish in changing a material from tion in lieu of tests to control compaction. a loose to a very-dense state. It has In fact, in many instances the rigorous simplified matters materially by making use of specifications certainly would have it possible to select or predetermine produced compaction inferior to that ob• desirable roadbed densities for construc• tained by visual inspection. This trend will tion involving a wide range of soils and continue until better methods of testing base materials by means of unit-we^ht and and means of e}q>ressing the selection of moisture-density tests. densities are employed. Our experience with the compaction Donald M. Burmister indicated concern of soils involving all gradations from over these same matters in his excellent clays to granular base materials has in• article: "The Importance and Practical dicated the need for a means of expres• Use of Relative Density in Soil Mechanics," sion for significant states of grain struc• published in Volume 48, Proceedings tures which affect relative supporting ASTM, where he described the problem in values. Investigations of e^ansive prop• the following statements: erties of clays as related to strength and compaction, together with experience in the commonly used term, percent compaction, molding specimens consisting of large expressed as a simple percentage of the maxi• particles, often have shown the need for mum density only, is not significant but is such an expression. Data relative to this actually misleading, because it is based upon subject were presented at the annual meet• the obvious fallacy that zero percent compac• ing of the Highway Research Board in 1946. tion can represent a unit weight of zero for any soil, whereas there is always a definite physical Our procedure (see THD-83 in the appen• limit to the minimum density or loosest state. dix) for compaction of samples consisting ... A field control requirement of a certain of large, top-size aggregates in large percent compaction gives a false sense of a good molds has done much to help establish a degree of compaction, which does not in fact correlation between laboratory and field exist. To the average engineer or contractor 100 percent compaction represents perfection compaction. Additional investigations, and 90 percent compaction, according to common including in-place field densities, have standards of engineering practice, is considered shown that it is not practical to obtain to be very good indeed. ... It is evident that such an expression by use of percent com• field-compaction requirements and specifications paction or percent density and that the use based on percentage compaction are not good enough for the construction and treatment of of percent compaction as a means of field subgrades and of high-quality base courses for control may cause overcompaction of clays airport-runway pavements intended to support and undercompaction of granular soils. heavy airplane wheel loadings, particularly Occasionally, harsh mixtures of base under the vibrational effects. Such require• materials are encountered which cannot ments are inadequate because they cannot prop• erly fix the lower density limit considered per• possibly be compacted to a density as high missible and acceptable in earthwork construc• as that calculated for the total material tion, which will minimize objectionable consol• from density tests of the minus-y4-inch or idation of granular soils and objectionable lateral No. 4 material, specific gravity of the plastic displacements of clay-soils under such retained portion, etc. Rolling of most loadings. Only 100 percent compaction has any real practical significance. The use of the term, soils which are not of a harsh nature percent compaction, in specifications should produces the required percent density or therefore be discontinued. In attempting to work out a means of shown that the percent compaction desired, using relative density for analyzing this (DA/DD) 100, varies from 87 to 99 per• problem, a similar but different expression cent for all soils tested, and that the dry- was discovered which simplified matters: rodded unit weight for some of the soils, compaction ratio is defined as the ratio of when expressed as a percentage of DD , the difference between actual and loose varies from84 to 92percent;therefore, by densities to the difference between dense specifying QOpercent density, the resulting and loose densities, ejqpressed as a per• density would not be above the dry-rodded centage and is represented by the ex- unit weight in some cases. Hence, a more- rational approach was sought by use of presslon^^A " "^^00. It e^qjresses the compaction ratio which is expressed as follows: /DA - DL\ degree to which it Is desirable to compact CR in percent = \UD -DL/IOO- Figure soil materials on the basis of the compacti- C and Table A of THD-110 show that a good bility of the material. The experienced correlation exists between compaction technician often can select a density to ratio and DL for widely varying types of which it is desirable to compact a material soils. The relation may be expressed by by investigating the effects produced by a the equation CR = 58 + t:—^ . Then,actual variety of compactive efforts, as suggested 3.9 in THD-83 in the appendix. By reference Since to the procedure involving the use of com• density DA = ^ (DD - DL) + DL. paction ratio, THD-110, it is possible for CR can be expressed in terms of DL, it is the inexperienced technician to select obvious that we have eliminated one variable proper densities on the basis of two specific and it is possible to determine the desired tests, i. e., a unit-weight determination DA in terms of DL and DD.