Stiffness Methods for Compaction Control: the P-FWD device

Abstract

Soil compaction is essential in the construction of highways, airports, buildings, bridges and dams. There is a current trend towards measuring the soil modulus instead the density. This approach is supported by the concept that the performance requirements (e.g., maximum soil strength, minimum permeability or minimum compressibility) may not correspond to the maximum soil dry density at its optimum water content. This study was undertaken to show the feasibility of employing the portable falling weight deflectometer (P-FWD), with Prima 100 device, in order to estimate in situ stiffness modulus of soils and to demonstrate the correlation between the output of the Prima 100 device and water contents and compaction degrees.