How the PANDITO® works
The operator who has just compacted a layer of material immediately tests the compaction quality using the PANDITO® Ultra-light Dynamic Cone Penetrometer. This self control test can be done by onsite field staff as the PANDITO® DCP is extremely simple to use and interpret. The PANDITO® Ultra-light Dynamic Cone Penetrometer is made up of a 5kg hammer system and a rod of 50 cm, graduated each 10 cm with a fixed cone of 2 cm². No additional tools are required for rod extraction.
The test consists of hitting a cone into the ground with a constant energy. The number of blows measured to sink every 10 cm is compared to a reference value, which is dependent on the soil (soil classification), moisture (wet, medium, dry) and the compaction quality required (95% OPN/OPM, 100% OPN/OPM…). For ease of use, a simplified table with reference values (3 soils families gathered) is attached to the hammer of the PANDITO® for immediate interpretation on site.
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Compaction objectives |
Crushed rock |
Non clay soils |
Clay soils |
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|
wet |
medium |
dry |
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|
90% OPN |
3 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
|
90% OPM – |
5 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
|
95% OPM – |
8 |
6 |
4 |
6 |
11 |
|
100% OPM |
11 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
13 |
Simplified table – Number of blows PANDITO® for 10 cm depth for compaction control
A full database (all soils from several soil classifications: USCS, AASHTO, PG3…) is also available as a table in order to refine the analysis. This more detailed analysis benefits from many years of research and development experience by SOL SOLUTION with dynamic cone penetrometers in compaction control.
