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Kok Shien Ng
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Abstract
Laboratory determination of compaction properties namely the maximum dry
density and optimum moisture content is both time consuming and costly.
Therefore, it is useful if simple correlation equations can be developed to
estimate the compaction properties using relatively easier index properties test.
This study aims to investigate the relationship between maximum dry density
and optimum moisture content and their correlation function with index
properties. Based on the results of nine soil samples using standard proctor
compaction test, the maximum dry density and the optimum moisture content
was well correlated. These two compaction properties have much better
correlation with the plasticity index than they have with other index properties.
Three best predictive models were proposed to estimate the compaction
properties based on multilinear regression (MLR) analyses. Additional variables
are included in the MLR analyses such as grain size distribution and specific
gravity other than the index properties. The recommended model requires only
the plasticity index and specific gravity.
Keywords: Maximum dry density, Optimum moisture content, Index properties,
Regression analyses
1. Introduction
Compaction of soil by mechanical mean is a common soil modification method to
improve the engineering properties of soils. The effectiveness of the compaction
LVXVXDOO\PHDVXUHGE\WKHVRLOVPRLVWXUHFRQWHQWDQGGU\GHQVLW\LQUHIHUHQFHGWR
maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum moisture content (OMC).
Understanding of the soil compaction properties (MDD and OMC) is important in
construction project such as earth dams, road and railway embankments, landfill
liners and backfills of retaining structure. However, considerable of time and
effort are required in the laboratory tests in order to obtain the compaction
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K.S. Ng et al.
Nomenclatures
E
F
G
R
S
Gs
Compaction energy
Fines
Gravel
Coefficient of correlation
Sand
Specific gravity
Abbreviations
LL
MDD
MLR
OMC
PI
PL
SE
Liquid limit
Maximum dry density
Multilinear regression
Optimum moisture content
Plasticity index
Plastic limit
Standard error
(1)
OMCB
(2)
On the other hand, Sridharan& Nagaraj [2] developed the prediction model for
standard proctor test using only plastic limit:
MDDR
(3)
OMCR
0.92 PL
(4)
Meanwhile, Noor et al. [3] incorporated plastic limit, plasticity index and
specific gravity to predict the compaction properties of the standard proctor test.
The relationships are presented as:
MDDN
27 PL0.6 PI 0.33
Gs
2.7
(5)
OMCN
0.55 PL 0.36 PI
Gs
2.7
(6)
The aim of the current study is to develop empirical predictive models based
on regression equations to estimate the maximum dry density and the optimum
moisture content using standard proctor (SP) test data. The statistical data consist
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of consistency indexes (LL, PL & PI), grain size distribution (gravel, sand and
fines content percentages) and specific gravity (Gs).
Gravel
(%)
Sand
(%)
Silt
(%)
Clay
(%)
Fines
(%)
LL
PL
PI
Gs
OMC
(%)
MDD
(Mg/m3)
Soil 1
39
41
13
54
43
27
16
2.55
18
1.66
Soil 2
46
36
45
53
34
19
2.45
24
1.47
Soil 3
28
50
19
69
51
33
18
2.56
24
1.48
Soil 4
64
27
91
47
30
17
2.57
19.5
1.60
Soil 5
20
46
31
34
44
28
16
2.56
14
1.72
Soil 6
25
40
35
75
46
29
17
2.54
17
1.57
Soil 7
10
46
32
12
44
42
26
16
2.55
17
1.65
Soil 8
26
30
26
18
44
43
28
15
2.58
14.5
1.72
Soil 9
20
46
23
11
34
41
26
15
2.60
13.5
1.74
(7)
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K.S. Ng et al.
The above equation gives the maximum SE of 5.5 % for soil no.7. The
compaction properties in the current study are further compared with the power
function equations developed by Sivrikaya et al. [5] and Matteo et al. [6] (shown
as Eq. 8 and Eq. 9 respectively) and the results are presented in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.
Both prediction models over predict the maximum dry density with the maximum
discrepancies of 11% in the former model and 8% in the latter model.
(8)
MDDS 23.72 e0.0184OMC
MDDM
(9)
36.635 OMC0.2564
2.845 0.073 PI
(10)
(11)
The compaction properties from this study are compared with different
prediction models (Eq. 1 6) as shown in Fig. 6-8. Generally, Noor et al. [3]
gives the best prediction for MDD with the average error (i.e. bias) of 0.008
Mg/m3 compared to Blotz et al. [1] and Sridharan & Nagaraj [2] with the average
error of 0.166 Mg/m3 and 0.115 Mg/m3 UHVSHFWLYHO\2YHUDOO%ORW]HWDOVPRGHO
predicts higher MDD with the maximum error of 16.8% while Sridharan &
Nagaraj [2] under predict MDD as much as 11.1%. On the other hand, OMC is
best predicted by Blotz et al.[1] with the average error of 0.04% while the average
error for Noor et al. [3] is 3%. Sridharan & Nagaraj [2] significantly over predicts
the OMC with average error of 8.7%. The large discrepancies of this prediction is
because the correlation (i.e. Eq. 4) is solely based on plastic limit which the
current results viz. Fig. 5 has shown that plastic limit is not well correlated to
OMC compared to plasticity index and liquid limit.
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 4. (a) MDD versus LL, (b) MDD vs PL, and (c) MDD vs PI.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 5. (a) OMD versus LL, (b) OMD vs PL, and (c) OMD vs PI.
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K.S. Ng et al.
(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)
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independent variables. The unit for all variables are in the percentage except the
unit for MDD is Mg/m3 and specific gravity is non unit variable. In this study,
several models are constructed and three best fit models are shown in Table 2 for
estimating MDD and Table 3 for estimating OMC. In these relationships, the
correlation of coefficient (R) and standard error (SE) are determined to verify the
accuracy from a statistical point of view. Among these models, model no.3 is
relatively easy since it requires only plasticity index and specific gravity which
the tests only require small amount of soil sample and easy to carry out. Hence,
model no. 3 is recommended.
Table 2. Correlation Equation for MDD.
Model
no.
1
2
3
Correlation equations
1.0
1.0
SE
(Mg/m3)
0.03
0.03
1.0
0.05
Correlation equations
OMC = -0.2929G 0.1174S 0.1551F +
0.7378LL
OMC = -0.2646G 0.2612S 0.2452F +
2.6111PI
OMC = 2.4480PI - 8.8502G
R
0.998
SE
(%)
1.70
0.997
1.91
0.996
1.74
6. Conclusion
Maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum moisture content (OMC) are
important compaction properties used for field compaction control. This study
investigated the relationship between the compaction properties and the index
properties of fine grained soils for standard proctor test. Multilinear regression
(MLR) analyses were conducted to develop predictive model from a statistical
point of view to estimate MDD and OMC. Several conclusions can be made from
this study:
i) Maximum dry density was well correlated with optimum moisture content.
ii) MDD and OMC were best correlated with plasticity index (PI) compared to
liquid limit (LL) and plastic limit (PL).
iii) Correlation equations by Sivrikaya et al. [5] and Matteo et al. [2] over
predicted MDD when the values for OMC are known.
iv) Predictive model by Noor et al. [3] gave the best estimation for MDD while
OMC was best predicted by Blotz et al. [1] work.
v) MLR analyses provide reliable predictive models and Model no.3 which only
involve index properties and specific gravity (Gs) is recommended. However,
these models should be limited to soils with similar characteristics as the soil
in this study and more samples are needed to improve the prediction with
broader scope in terms of OMC, MDD, LL, PI, and Gs.
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K.S. Ng et al.
References
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