REVIEW OF COMPACTED

CLAY
Under the guidance of
Dr.K.Rajeswara rao
Professor & Dean of civil Infrastructure
M.V.G.R college of engineering
10331A0152
10331A0124
10331A0115
10331A0133
1033NR0118
1

Proposed area of work

Structure and engineering behavior of compacted
clay.
Structure: Arrangement of soil particles and electrical
forces acting between adjacent particles.
Study of compacted clay is used to determine the
behavior of fine grained soils.
This study also helps to study the affect of molding
water content on the behavior of soil.
2

Introduction
Compaction:
Compaction is the application of mechanical energy to a
soil to rearrange the particles and reduce the void ratio by the
expulsion of air from voids.
Purpose of compaction of soil:
The principal reason for compacting soil is to reduce
subsequent settlement under working loads.
Compaction increases the shear strength of soil.
It is used for the support of structural entities such as
building foundations, roadways, walkways, and earth retaining
structures
3

COMPACTION CURVES
D
R
Y
D
E
N
S
I
T
Y

D
R
Y
D
E
N
S
I
T
Y
WATER CONTENT

WATER CONTENT

COARSE GRAINED SOILS

FINE GRAINED SOILS

4

Factors affecting Soil Compaction

Water content of the soil & compactive effort:

Increased compactive effort enables greater dry unit weights It
should be noted that for moisture contents greater than the optimum the
use of heavier compaction machinery will have only a small effect on
increasing dry unit weights.

Type of compaction techniques

Vibrating
Impact
Static
Rolling
Using rammers

Relation of dry unit weight and water content of samples of

a fine grained soil compacted with standard and high
compactive efforts

HIGH

STANDARD

D
R
Y
D
E
N
S
I
T
Y

HIGH COMPACTIVE
EFFORT

STANDARD
COMPACTIVE
EFFORT
WATER CONTENT
6

Mechanical properties
Compressibility
Permeability
Shear strength
D
R
Y
D
E
N
S
I
T
Y

A>R
B

A<R
C

WATER CONTENT

Objectives of proposed area

Influence of structure on mechanical properties
(strength,permeability,compressibility)
Strength:
Practically structure has no influnce on soil in
undrained condition at high strains.
At low strains-flocculated structure has more strength than
dispersed structure.

Permeability:
Flocculated structure has more permeability than
dispersed structure.
P
E
R
M
E
A
B
I
L
I
T
Y
WATER CONTENT

Compressibility:
Flocculated structure has low compressibility
than dispersed structure at low stress.
At high stress,compressibility is same in both the
structures.

DISPERSED

V
O
I
D

FLOCCULATED

R
A
T
I
O
EFFECTIVE STRESS

10

Parameter
Permeability
compressibility
at low stress
at medium stress
at high stress

strength
at low strains
at high strains

Dry of optimum

Wet of optimum

more

less

low
high

high
low

same

same

more
same

low
same
11

Indirect assessment
Influence of structure on mechanical properties can also be
determined by the indirect assessment
Shrinkage limit: Flocculated structure shrinks less than the
dispersed structure.
Free swell: Flocculated structure has more swelling tendency
than dispersed structure.

12

Literature review
A paper on structure and strength characteristics of compacted
clays by H.B.Seed (M.ASCE) & C.K.Chan (A.M.ASCE)
- describes the influence of soil structure on different
properties of soil.
A paper on the engineering behavior of compacted clay by T.
William Lambe (M.ASCE)
-describes the relationships between clay structure
and engineering behavior of compacted clays.

13

Date
5th jan

Schedule
Work scheduled
Free swell

Number of days
required
1day

7th jan-8th jan

Specific gravity

2days

10th jan

Liquid limit

1day

21st jan

plastic limit

1day

22nd jan
23rd jan
24th jan

shrinkage
limit
compaction
Particle size
distribution

1day
1day
1day
14

Date

Work scheduled

Number of days
required

25thjan-30thjan

Compaction at 5
different points for
strength
determination

5days

31thjan-4thfeb

Compaction for
permeability
determination

5days

25th jan-4th feb

5thfeb-15th feb
16th feb-27thfeb

Compaction for
consolidation
determination

10days
10days
10days
15