The Effects of Soil Compaction on the Physical Properties of Indonesian Latosol

Abstract

This study evaluated the characteristics of soil compaction by measuring the dry density, permeability, unconfined compressive strength, and soil structure of Indonesian latosol soil. The changes in dry density and permeability observed with a normal compaction test were similar to those widely noted in sandy clay loam.
The increasing of compaction energy affected dry density, permeability, and soil strength clearly at the dry side of optimum water content, while it had almost no effect at the wet side. Also, the unit of soil structure expressed by using mean mass diameter of aggregates became smaller at the dry side and larger at the wet side when compaction energy increased. The additional compaction of normally compacted soil had more effect on the upper soil layer than on the underlayer. Moreover, it created dry density higher than 1.3 g/cm³ and minimum permeability of 10^-7cm/s at lower water content than the optimum obtained by normal compaction test.