A comprehensive laboratory compaction study: Geophysical assessment

Junghee Park, Jong Sub Lee, Byeong Su Jang, Dae Hong Min, Hyung Koo Yoon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study characterizes Proctor and geophysical properties in a broad range of grading and fines contents. The results show that soil index properties such as uniformity and fines plasticity control the optimum water content and peak dry unit trends, as well as elastic wave velocity. The capillary pressure at a degree of saturation less than S = 20% plays a critical role in determining the shear wave velocity for poorly graded sandy soils. The reduction in electrical resistivity with a higher water content becomes pronounced as the water phase is connected A parallel set of compaction and geophysical properties of sand-kaolinite mixtures reveal that the threshold boundaries computed from soil index properties adequately capture the transitions from sand-controlled to kaolinite-controlled behavior. In the transitional fines fraction zone between FF ≈ 20 and 40%, either sand or kaolinite or both sand and kaolinite could dominate the geophysical properties and all other properties associated with soil compaction behavior. Overall, the compaction and geophysical data gathered in this study can be used to gain a first-order approximation of the degree of compaction in the field and produce degree of compaction maps as a function of water content and fines fraction.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)211-218
Number of pages8
JournalGeomechanics and Engineering
Volume30
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022 Jul 25

Keywords

  • compaction
  • geophysical methods
  • threshold fines fraction
  • transitional behavior

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology

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