Strength and performance characteristics of soil compacted at different energy levels

Performance of pavements can be improved by improving the compaction of subgrade to higher densities than by increasing the thickness of base and surface layers in the same structural thickness. Locally available loamy soil was selected for studying the laboratory strength and performance characteristics of soil compacted at four compaction energy levels viz., standard Proctor compaction energy, modified Proctor compaction energy levels and the other two energy levels are selected in between these two energy levels. CBR, UCS, tri-axial tests were carried out at all four compaction energy levels. The increase in dry density found to be 14.3 for soil compacted at modified compaction energy compared to samples compacted at standard compaction energy. The increase in CBR and UCS found to be 2.8 and 3.3 times for samples compacted at modified Proctor compaction energy compared to standard Proctor energy level. Similarly the increase in elastic modulus is 3.3 times. Laboratory repeated load tests results indicated increase in resilient modulus by 26 times for samples compacted at modified Proctor compaction energy when compared to samples compacted at standard Proctor compaction energy. Significant increase in strength and performance of pavements can be achieved by improving the soil compaction using higher compaction efforts. ©2012 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.