Effect of Compaction Energy on Engineering Properties of Expansive Soil

Swelling of expansive clays is one of the great hazards, a foundation engineer encounters. Each year expansive soils cause severe damageto residences, buildings, highways, pipelines, and other civil engineering structures. Strength and deformation parameters of soils arenormally related to soil type and moisture. However, surprisingly limited focus has been directed to the compaction energy applied to thesoil. Study presented herein is proposed to examine the effect of varying compaction energy of the engineering properties i.e. compactioncharacteristics, unconfined compressive strength, California bearing ratio and swell percentage of soil. When compaction energy increasedfrom 237 KJ/m3 to 1197 KJ/m3, MDD increased from 1.61 g/cm3 to 1.75 g/cm3, OMC reduced from 31.55 percent to 21.63 percent, UCSincreased from 110.8 to 230.6 KPa, and CBR increased from mere 1 percent to 10.2 percent. Results indicate substantial improvement inthese properties. So, compacting soil at higher compaction energy levels can provide an effective approach for stabilization of expansivesoils up to a particular limit. But if the soil is compacted more than this limit, an increase in swell potential of soil is noticed due to thereduction in permeability of soil.

Keywords:

Expansive Soils , Compaction Energy , Compaction Characteristics , Unconfined Compressive Strength , Swell Potential , Soaked California Bearing Ratio