<b>Pre-compression and water content behaviour of a clay soil in function of the aggregate size</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actasciagron.v27i3.1464

Abstract

Soil compaction has been the subject of intensive research studies in the last ten years, but the mechanisms involved in the soil compaction process still remain barely known. The pre-compression pressure has been used as a procedure for estimating the susceptibility of the soil compaction. The contribution of aggregate size of the soil as well as the effect of water content on soil compaction was investigated in a clay soil during this trial. Disturbed soil samples constituted by aggregated inferior to 2.5 mm A₁ and 9.3 to 19.4 mm A₂ were submitted to a drained uniaxial compression test. The compression index and pre-compression stress and the behavior of the water content were evaluated. The soil compression index decreased with the increase of aggregate size, showing that the virgin compression lines were parallels only with the values of the soil A₂. The pre-compression stress values increased with the reduction of aggregate size and the soil water content. The results of the voids ratios in function of the threshold water content reflect with bigger precision, in soil A₂, the regions of the soil behavior to the compaction with all the applied pressures.