A pressure measurement method based on profiling elastic press roller

A novel method was introduced based on a type of profiling elastic press roller to solve the problem that soil compaction pressure is difficult to monitor in real time. The pressure real-time values were acquired through the measurement of the profiling elastic press roller’s eccentricity. In order to evaluate the relationship between the profiling elastic press roller’s eccentricity and the pressure, the study was conducted in an indoor soil bin, in July 2015. Three experimental treatments with soil volumetric moisture content 14.9%, 22.7% and 29.7%, were used in clay soils. The relationship between the profiling elastic press roller’s eccentricity and soil cone index, and the relationship between the static pressure and soil cone index, were investigated. With the equivalent relationship of the cone index, the data was curve fitted and the model equation was established between eccentricity and pressure, in the topsoil layer in which the depth is 0–0.1 m. The correlation coefficient values (R 2 ) of the model equation all reached 0.99 at three experimental treatments, indicating the high degree of correlation. In order to evaluate the pressure measurement method, the validation experiments were conducted. The relationship was compared between the cone index predicted from the press roller measurements and the cone index measured from the manual measurements. The results showed that the dots of scatter diagram are all concentrated around the 1:1 ratio line, with high R 2 values, at three volumetric moisture contents. These experiments indicate that the predictions were very consistent with the manual measurements, indicating the pressure measurement method based on the profiling elastic press roller can be used into real-time pressure monitoring.