Earth compaction equipment is used to decrease the porosity of earth and to increase density and strength of the earth. Compaction of the earth is done by rolling, kneading, ramming, tamping, vibrating etc.
There are types of compacting equipment. Rolling equipment, ramming equipment and vibrating equipment.
Rollers
Rollers are used to consolidate filling materials and to the compact surface finisher.
They are of two types
Dead weight rollers
Generally, rollers rely upon their dead weight to carry out consolidation work. They are their weight various from 1 to 16 tones which are distributed to the ground through two large diameters near wheels and a wider but small front steering wheel sometimes to increase the dead weight and dampen the surface while compaction through attached water sprinkler, water tank are attached to the rollers.
Vibrating rollers
Vibrating rollers weight varies from 500kg to 5 tones. To consolidate small area in building works particularly in granular soil, this type of rollers are more effective. They are available with or without water sprinkle attachments and with vibration ranging up to 3000 vibrations per minute.
Earth rammers
The earth rammers may be static or vibrating. The static earth rammers compact soil close to the surface only. Hence. The vibrating earth rammers are generally used to active better compaction of soil. The vibration also makes it possible to adopt small and light equipment and to lay soil in thick layers. The earth rammers may be run by petrol or diesel engines. Their rammers can be designed to impact vertical blows and at the same time, to make forward movement usually 200blowa are imported per minute which may give an impact force of about soil conditions, the compaction depth of 450mm to 500mm may achieve an area of about 10m2 per minute may be compacted by such rammers.
Jetting and pounding
This technique is best suited for compaction of cohesionless soil.