Abstract
Intelligent compaction (IC) is a new technique in the U.S. construction market that uses an instrumented compactor to control soil or asphalt compaction in real time. This technology provides one of the first opportunities to apply process control to civil construction. IC is based on the measurement of the mechanical characteristics of the compacted soil, commonly soil stiffness, but other properties are used also. Initiatives in both the United States and Europe started more than 10 years ago and have demonstrated the technical viability of measuring in situ soil stiffness. The measured soil stiffness is used to estimate or compute in situ soil modulus on the basis of assumptions about soil behavior and the interaction between the compaction machine and the soils. IC offers immense potential benefits in embankment, buried structure, and dam and pavement construction. These benefits–-including improved quality, reduced compaction cost, reduced life-cycle cost, and integration of design with construction and pavement performance–-arise from surface-covering documentation and process control of the compaction operation.
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