Chapter 1: Soil Voids

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction
Background
Soil is the common material that being used as base or foundation for every construction and it is needed to be compact first. This is because the soil that use contains high air voids. Air voids occur when there is air trapped between soil particles. High air void content in soil will decrease the soil strength and the soil is categorising as the loose soil. To remove air voids, mechanical energy is required and indirectly it will also cause changes in the water content. Compaction is where the process of turning the soil more dense. It is where the soil particles are press together to a closer state while expelling the air from the soil in process. Compaction will improve the engineering properties of soil. This is because the soil that compress will have a higher strength due to the position of the particles more closely. In addition, compressibility and permeability of the soil will become lower.

Figure 1:
The soil characteristic such as the density and the unit weight will be increase due to the expulsion of the air during the compaction process. The density and unit weight terms are often used mistakenly. The density is referring to the amount of mass per unit of volume ( kg⁄m^3 ) and the symbol of density is ρ. While on the other hand, the unit weight is referring to the weight per unit of volume (kN⁄m^3 ) and the symbol for unit weight is γ.

Figure 2:
Every soil has different characteristic with respect to the maximum density and optimum moisture. Soil types are commonly determined by grain size. Hence, it can be classified by conducting the sieve analysis test to determine the particle size of soil passing through the series of sieve to screen or separate different size of grain...

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...s compressed multiple times on each layer during the construction process, but the probability of sand to settle is still exists as so often happens the soil deposition in the abutment and Embankment. This probably is due to vibrations and loads applied to the soil repeatedly from its surroundings.
Therefore, the compaction test will be done in the laboratory by applying the same concept which is the sand in the mould will be compact and vibrate by using the variable methods of soil compaction so that the soil will experience the same situation as in construction work. The result among of these tests will be compare.
The study is to determine which of the soil compaction method is most effective way in terms of which method can compact the soil particles closer by referring to the difference of the sand volume in the mould before and after the compaction test done.

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