A practical technique for the compaction control of sand in road construction: using a dynamic lightweight cone penetrometer

Quality control of road materials is important in road construction. Various methods have been developed based on the material dry unit weight or density. As a simple alternative method, this research investigates a new technique for the compaction control of sand using a dynamic lightweight cone penetrometer (DLP). This penetrometer has the same design as the widely used standard cone penetrometer but has a lighter hammer mass of 2.25 kg. A large number of tests were carried out in large moulds in the laboratory using two different typical sand samples from Western Australia. Strong correlations were found between the compacted dry density and the dynamic lightweight cone penetrometer index for the two experimental sand samples used in this study with different moisture contents. DLP can provide a rapid, simple and less expensive method for the compaction control of compacted sand fills in the field.