Comparative Validation of Some Compaction Prediction Models

Abstract

Compaction is a very important aspect of civil engineering practice but is a very laborious and time-consuming process that equally consumes enormous amounts of natural resources. The effort to reduce the time, labour, and resources wastage associated with traditional compaction processes led to the effort in the development of some models to predict compaction parameters: maximum dry unit weight (MDUW) and optimum moisture content (OMC), however, there has been no unified model developed for this purpose. Each developed model presents a lot of limitations largely bordering on data used for the calibration of the models and region of sample collection. In this work, 18 soil models developed for fine-grained and coarse-grained models were comparatively validated using neutral compaction soil data. The study showed the developed models and the most important soil index properties influencing each model for fine-grained and coarse-grained soils. It also showed the biases in each model and the comparative performance of the model against one another while adducing the possible reasons behind that. Recommendations were made on the most important considerations and decisions to be taken in subsequent efforts toward the development of more unified models for the prediction of soil compaction parameters of soils.