Verification of a Finite Element Model Utilized to Simulate the Vibratory Response of a Compaction Roller

Effective use of Continuous Compaction Control (CCC) and Intelligent Compaction (IC) technologies has been explored since their first implementation in the 1970s, with intentions towards transforming how the geotechnical engineering profession monitors the soil compaction process. Despite the ability of CCC/IC technologies to provide near-continuous compaction effort information in real time via instrumenting a compaction roller with a data acquisition system, many of the measurements derived from CCC/IC technologies are indicator values. Consequently, these values do not provide a direct measure of soil properties of interest (e.g., soil stiffness or dry unit weight) within the context of earthwork construction Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) protocols. In the current study, a simplified two-dimensional viscoelastic Finite Element (FE) model was utilized to simulate the interaction between a compaction drum and the underlying soil during the compaction process. The model was calibrated against experimental data collected during the compaction process of a full-scale earthen embankment instrumented with several arrays of accelerometers that were used to monitor the wave propagation response of the embankment during the compaction process. Results presented in the current study revealed that the simplified FE model developed was able to capture the same salient wave propagation behavior that was observed from the experimental data. Thus, the results presented in the current study justify the use of a simplified FE model in order to gain insight into the coupled interaction behavior between a compaction drum and the underlying soil during the compaction process, which ultimately will allow for better quantification of the relationship between CCC/IC-based measurements and the corresponding “spot-testing” soil stiffness measurements that are recorded during earthwork QA/QC applications.