TITLE

Determination of dry density of soil by sand replacement method

OBJECTIVES
To determine the field density of soil at a given location by sand replacement method

INTRODUCTION
The dry density of the compacted soil or pavement material is a common measure of the
amount of the compaction achieved during the construction. Knowing the field density and
field moisture content, the dry density is calculated. Therefore field density test is important as
a field control test for the compaction of soil or any other pavement layer. Sand replacement
test method is used to determine the field density or in-place density of earth embankments,
road fills, sub-grade, sub-base or any of compacted material. This method serves as base upon
which one can accept the density of a compacted material to a specified magnitude or to a
percentage maximum unit dry density determined as proctor. There are several methods for the
determination of field density of soil such as core cutter method, sand replacement method,
rubber balloon method, heavy oil method and etc. One of the common methods of determining
field density of fine grained soils is core cutter method. But this method has a major limitation
in the case of soils containing coarse grained particles such as gravel, stones and aggregates.
Under such circumstances, field density test by sand replacement method is advantageous, as
the presence of coarse grained particles will adversely affect the test results. The basic principle
of sand replacement method is to measure the volume of hole from which the material was
excavated from the weight of sand with known density filling in the hole.

THEORY
By conducting this test it is possible to determine the field density of the soil. Determination of
field density of cohesion less soil is not possible by core cutter method, because it is not
possible to obtain a core sample. In such situation, the sand replacement method is employed to
determine the unit weight. In sand replacement method, a small cylindrical pit is excavated and
the weight of the soil excavated from the pit is measured. Sand whose density is known is
filled into the pit. By measuring the weight of the sand required to fill the pit and knowing its
density the volume of pit is calculated. The sand pouring cylinder test is used to determine the
soil density in the field and to control the results of the field compaction. In this method, the in-
situ density is obtained by measuring the weight and the volume of soil obtained from a hole,
which is manually excavated at the place where the density is required. Therefore, in this
experiment there are two stages, namely calibration of sand density and measurement of soil
density.
APPARATUS

Sand pouring cylinder with fitted valve, metal funnel and base plate
Uniform fine sand with grain size ranges from 1.00mm to 0.60mm
Digging tools to dig a hole in the soil
Airtight container to collect the removed soil.
Drying can for water content determination
Balances sensitive to 1g and 0.01g
Drying oven with temperature ranges from 1050C to 110oC
Desiccator

PROCEDURE

The internal volume was determined of the calibrating container by using the
dimensions as follows,
V = (d2/4)h
 The sand pouring cylinder was filled with the sand to be calibrated within about 10mm
of its top left vacant and then determine the mass of the sand poing cylinderlong with
sand.
The cylinder was placed on a clean plane surface and the shutter was kept open till the
sand fills up the cone fully. The shutter was closed and the sand collected on the plate
was weight.
The cylinder was refilled such that it get the initial weight.
The cylinder was placed over the calibration container and the shutter was opened until
the cone and the container volume was completely filled with sand.
The bulk density o the sand was determined by dividing the mass of sand in the
calibrating cylinder with the volume of the calibrating cylinder.
REFERENCES