USE OF LOCAL SANDS TO DETERMINE THE DENSITY OF SOIL IN PLACE BY SAND CONE METHOD

Abstract

This research studied the use of local sands that can be found in Northeastern Thailand to determine the hole volumes as a part of the field density test of soil by sand cone method. The samples of local sand were collected from four different locations: 1) Chi river sand, Muang district, Maha Sarakham province, 2) Chi river sand, Kantharawichai district, Maha Sarakham province, 3) Mun River sand, Satuek district, Buriram province, and 4) Mun River sand, Phon Sai district, Roi Et province. All samples were separated to four different sizes by using sieve No. 20, 30, 40 and 60 and were used to find the volume of an artificial hole with known volume by the sand cone technique. Ottawa sand was also used to find the hole volume in order to compare with the local sand. The accuracies of the hole volumes obtained by the sand cone technique were investigated. The results indicated that the average hole volumes obtained from 5 repetitions of tests by using all samples differ from the actual hole volume in the range of 0.01% to 2.51% and the standard deviations were in the range of 1.79 to 6.55. Ottawa sand showed the most satisfactory results. The first three suitable local sands for volume determination are 1) Chi river sand from Kantharawichai District which passed sieve No. 20 and retained on sieve No. 60, 2) Mun river sand from Phon Sai district which passed sieve No. 40 and retained on sieve No. 60 and 3) Mun river sand from Phon Sai district which passed sieve No. 30 and retained on sieve No. 40.