UNIT – 1
IN-SITU DEEP COMPACTION IN GRANULAR SOILS
LECTURE – 2
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
• Dynamic Compaction
• Depth of Improvement
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
• It is a technique which was used long ago (Schultze and
Muhs, 1967) and has taken birth recently (Menard and
Broise, 1975).
• In this method heavy weight upto (45000 kG) is
dropped from a height of 15 to 40 m to fall freely back
to the ground surface.
• The soil at the shallow depth from the surface will be
in a great disturbed condition. This upper layer up to a
depth of about 2m is then compacted using a smaller
weight with greater area (and hence lower stress) and
is dropped from low heights(and hence imparts lower
energy). (Purushothama, 2018)
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
• Advantages
– It is one of the simplest and most basic methods
of compacting loose soil.
– Depth of compaction can reach up to 20m.
– All types of soils can be compacted.
– Produces equal settlements more quickly than
surcharge type loading.
– It can be used to treat soils both above and below
water table.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– Technique
– Energy Transfer Mechanism
– Stages of Compaction
– Application-which soils are compacted
– Types
– Ground Vibrations
– Design Considerations
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– Technique
• Involves repeatedly dropping a large weight from a
crane
• Weight may range from 6 to 172 tons
• Drop height typically varies from 10 to 40 m.
• Degree of densification achieved is a function of the
energy input (weight and drop height) as well as the
saturation level, fines content and permeability of the
material.
• 6 to 30 ton weight can densify the loose sands to a
depth of 3 m to 12 m
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– Technique
• Done systematically in a rectangular ot triangular
pattern in phases.
• Each phase can have no of passes; primary, secondary,
tertiary, etc.
• Spacing between impact points depend upon
– Depth of compressible layer
– Permeability of soil
– Location of ground water level.
• Deeper layers are compacted at wider grid spacing,
upper layers are compacted with closer grid spacing.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– Technique
– Deep craters are formed by tamping
– Craters may be filled with sand after each pass
– Heave around craters is generally small,
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– ENERGY TRANSFER MECHANISM
• Energy transferred by propagation of Rayleigh (surface)
waves and volumic (shear and compression) waves.
– Rayleigh 67 %
– Shear 26 %
– Compression 7%
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– DENSIFICATION PROCESS
• Compressibility of saturated soil due to presence of
micro bubbles.
• Gradual transition to liquefaction under repeated
impacts
• Rapid dissipation of pore pressures due to high
permeability after soil fissuring.
• Thixotropic recovery.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– APPLICATION
• Applicable to wide variety of soils
• Grouping of soils on the basis of grain sizes.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– APPLICATION
• Mainly used to compact granular fills.
• Particularly useful for compacting rockfills below water
and for bouldery soils where other methods cannot be
applied or are difficult.
• Waster dumps, sanitary landfills, and mine wastes.
• In sanitary fills, settlements are caused wither by
compression of voids or decaying of the trash material
over time, Deep Dynamic Compaction(DDC) is effective
in reducing the void ratio, and therefore reducing the
immediate and long term settlement.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– APPLICATION
• DDC is also effective in reducing the decaying problem,
since collapse means less available oxygen for decaying
process.
• For recent fills, where organic decomposition is still
underway, DDC increases the unit weight of the soil
mass be collapsing voids and decreasing the void ratio.
• For older fills where biological decomposition is
complete, DDC has greatest effects by increasing unit
weight and reducing long term ground subsidence.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DYNAMIC COMPACTION
– TYPES
• Dynamic Compaction
• Dynamic Consolidation
• Dynamic Replacement
• Rotational Dynamic Compaction
• Rapid Impact Dynamic Compaction.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DEPTH OF IMPROVEMENT
– The depth of improvement is proportional to the
energy per blow.
– The improvement can be estimated through
empirical correlation, at design stage and is
verified after compaction through field tests such
as Standard Penetration Tests (SPT), Cone
Penetration Test(CPT), etc.
–
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DEPTH OF IMPROVEMENT
– Dmax = n√W x H
Where,
Dmax = Max depth of improvement, m
n = coeff. that caters for soil and
equipment variability
W = weight of tamper, tons
H = Height of fall of tamper, m
– The effectiveness of dynamic compaction can also
be assessed readily by the crater depth and
requirement of backfill.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DEPTH OF IMPROVEMENT
– DEPENDS ON
• Soil conditions
• Energy per drop
• Contact pressure of tamper
• Grid spacing
• Number of passes
• Time lag between passes
• Equipment limitations
– Crane capacity
– Height of drop
– Mass of tamper
– Tamper size
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DEPTH OF IMPROVEMENT
• Grid spacing
– Significant effect on depth of improvement.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DEPTH OF IMPROVEMENT
• Number of passes
– First pass compacts deepest layer, should be equal to the
compressible layer.
– Subsequent passes compact shallower layers, may require
lesser energy
– Ironing pass compacts top layer.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
DEPTH OF IMPROVEMENT
• Time lag between passes
– Allow pore pressure to dissipate
– Piezometers can be installed to monitor dissipation of pore
pressures following each pass.
– PASS:
» Treatment by dynamic compaction is normally carried out
with the weight being dropped a set number of times on a
regular grid pattern across the whole treatment area to
constitute a “PASS”
– NO. OF PASSES REQUIRED:
» Between two and five passes are generally required, with
the first of earlier high energy treatment passes aimed at
treating the deeper soil layer. A final low energy continuous
tamping pass is then usually carried out to compact the
shallow near-surface soils distributed during the earlier
higher energy treatment passes.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
References
• Menard, L. And Y. Broise (1975), “Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Dynamic
Consolidation”, Geotechnique, Vol . 25, pp. 3-18, 1975.
• Purushothama , R.P.(2018), “Ground Improvement Techniques”, 2nd Edition, Laxmi
Publications (P) Ltd.
• Schultze, E. And H. Muhs(1967), “Bodenuntersuchingen Fur Ingenieur-Bauten”,
Springer, Berlin.
Sasanka Borah, PhD, Dept. of Civil
Engineering, Assam Engineering College
