Assessment of Compression Index Empirical Equations for Glaciated and Unglaciated Soils

This study was focused on evaluating the correlations of compression index to other soil properties for glaciated and unglaciated soils. Comparative assessments of those correlations between glaciated and unglaciated soils were made. The study was performed using data collected from various projects across a local region. Several properties of these soils were also evaluated and presented to better understand glaciated and unglaciated soils used for empirical correlations. The results indicated that the properties of glaciated soils are typically lower than the properties of unglaciated soils, ranging from 10 to 25% on average. In addition, glaciated soil properties typically have more variability comparted to the unglaciated soils, with coefficient of variation more than twice for some properties. A comparative assessment of correlations between the compression index and other soil properties for glaciated and unglaciated soils showed significant differences. The results showed that void ratio for glaciated soils and water content for unglaciated soils have the best correlations for the compression index for local conditions. In addition, the study showed that many of the commonly used existing empirical equations are not applicable to neither glaciated nor unglaciated soils in the region.