Fundamental Principles of Soil Comapction

This is the first of four articles describing the application to the design and construction of rolled-earth dams of recently developed methods for controlling the compaction of soils. Under the new procedure a series of simple laboratory and field tests determines the suitability of the abailable soils, supplies essential daa for the design of the dam, serves as a basis for the control of construction operations and furnishes a definite check on the effectiveness of the work as it proceeds. Methods are described for compacting sols so that they will be sufficiently watertight and will not become soft and unstable if completely saturated with water. The basic principles of the control of soil compaction that are described apply to all types of earthfills and to foundation design as well as to earth dams - Editor