The degree of soil compaction required to achieve the desired engineering properties is often specified

as a percentage of the modified maximum dry unit weight as determined using this test method
1. To check that field compaction meets specification, the degree of compaction is determined by the
percentage of the modified maximum dry unit weight.
2. The sand cone method is used to determine the density and water content of compacted soils placed
during the construction of earth embankments, road fill, and structural backfill. The basic principle of
this method is to measure the in-situ volume of hole from which the material was excavated from the
weight of sand with known density filling in the hole.
3. We use particular sand grains for the sand-cone method, which ranges from 0.85 to 0.6 mm, and not
to use any sand because its uniformity helps to keep a constant density.
4. It is important not to lose any soil from the excavated hole during the sand cone method because a
loss of material would introduce substantial error in the determination of the unit weight for such a
relatively small sample.
5. Balloon density and nuclear methods are the two other test methods that can be used to define the
soil density in the fields.
6. Balloon density the volume of the hole is determined by introducing into a rubber ballon filled with
water from a calibrated vessel.