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Compaction control of secondary materials used in earthworks
Author(s) -
Huber Stefan,
Henzinger Christoph,
Heyer Dirk
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geotechnik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.203
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2190-6653
pISSN - 0172-6145
DOI - 10.1002/gete.201900007
Subject(s) - compaction , earthworks , serviceability (structure) , geotechnical engineering , dynamic compaction , rammed earth , engineering , civil engineering
Compaction control is a fundamental part of quality assurance for earthworks and essential to ensuring the long‐term stability and serviceability of earth structures. As the testing of relative compaction for coarse‐grained materials is time‐consuming, plate load tests are typically used for this purpose. Practical experience shows that the compaction control of secondary materials using plate load tests is not as straightforward as suggested in earthwork specifications. Unfortunately, these subtleties are not widely known and typically lead to rejection of the compacted layers, despite the material having been compacted thoroughly. This paper summarizes the findings of compaction field tests on several secondary materials that were field‐compacted to varying dry densities. Field testing of the compacted layers included the determination of dry density and plate load tests (static and dynamic). The results of these field tests are presented and discussed here and show that the parameters provided by plate load tests do not relate to the dry densities of the materials tested in the same way as they do for natural materials. Suggestions are provided concerning the most viable way of conducting compaction control of secondary materials within the earthwork specifications of Germany and Austria.