Document (3).docx

Soil mechanic is the path of civil engineering that study about physical properties and utilization of soils, especially used in planning foundations for structures and subgrades for highways. The founder of soil mechanic is karl von terzaghi in 1925 and he has been giving a great impact into construction field. Physical properties of soil : Water content Specific Grafity Pore ratio Saturation ratio Characteristic of soil Compressibilty the degree to which soil may be made denser by various means including tamping and vibration, and thus able to support greater loads); elasticity (the ability of soil to reexpand after being compressed); permeability (the degree to which a soil will conduct a flow of water

Consolidation is the discharge of water from the pore of the soil due to pressure. But sometime the soil can be swelled because absorbing the water nearby soil. One of the problems that related with soil mechanics is breakdown highway Mostly people think that breakdown highway is caused by puddles on the surface. But there is another reason. It is highway subgrade it self Puddles will damage the highway with making a hole on highway surface, but damage caused by the soil are waves and crack on the highway surface. The soil is consolidating and subgrade will be settlement and when rigid construction have not any support when it is pressed, it will crack and break. We need to do a proctor test to determine the optimum water content and maximum soil compressibility and apply the test results to the soil that will be the subgrade of the highway. So we can decrease the degree of soil consolidation. It only decrease soil consolidation degree it mean the soil still can be swelled or settlement

Ansal, dkk 2001, The cyclic behaviour of soils and effects of geotechnical factors in microzonationOriginal Research Article Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Volume 21, Issue 5, July 2001, Pages 445-452.

Djarwadi, D, 2006 Konstruksi Jalan diatas Tanah Lunak dengan Perkuatan Geotekstil, International Civil Engineering Conference “ Towards Sustainable Civil

Terzaghi, K., 1943, Theoretical Soil Mechanics