Standard Compaction Test

Soil compaction is a fundamental requirement for the construction of earth fill for dams, reservoirs, canal embankments, highways, railways and runways. The relationship between soil moisture content and compacted dry density is very useful for deciding construction specifications and quality control of compacted earthfill. While designing a soil retaining structure, the strength and deformation behaviour of soil is evaluated by testing soil specimen compacted to the density as would be achieved during construction. The construction quality control is essentially to check the density of compacted soil achieved in the field, thereby checking its strength.