PARAMETRIC STUDY OF SOIL DRYING IN THE FIELD FOR COMPACTION QUALITY ASSURANCE

Abstract

Moving towards modulus based methods of soil compaction quality assurance using lightweight deflectometers (LWD) requires evaluation of the LWD measured modulus in the field. The resilient modulus of geomaterials is not only influenced by the moisture content (MC) at the time of compaction, but also by the MC at the time of testing, which may be up to few hours after compaction. A parametric study was performed using SoilVision’s SVFlux analysis package to model the variation of soil moisture profile with depth versus time as a function of environmental factors. Then the drying in a compacted soil layer was modeled and compared to the volumetric water content measurements in an instrumented large-scale test pit. Finally, LWD modulus values in the field were captured immediately and a few hours after compaction to exhibit the variation of modulus with time and to identify if the stiffness gain in geomaterial is significant.