2017R/2016-CIV-102

JOB # 01
DETERMINATION OF CALLIBRATION OF SPEEDY MOISTURE

 OBJECTIVE:
“The purpose of this job is to calibrate speedy moisture.”

 APPARATUS:
 Speedy moisture meter
 Two 1.25 in steel balls
 Calcium carbide reagent
 Scoop for measuring calcium carbide reagent
 Cleaning brush and cloth
 Natural soil
 RELATED THEORY:
 Measurement of moisture content both in natural state and under certain
defined test conditions can provide an extremely useful method of
classifying cohesive soils and of assessing Engineering properties.
 The quick determination of moisture content is always required whenever
one is working on site and requires an estimate about in situ moisture
content.
 Speedy moisture meter provides a quick means to determine the moisture
content.
 Particularly it is important for field determination of moisture content with
field compaction testing.
 In speedy moisture the free moisture in the soil reacts with calcium
carbide reagent to form acetylene gas.
CaC2 + H2O  CaO + C2H2
 The acetylene is tapped within the tester and registers on the pressure
dial which is calibrated to head directly in percent of moisture by wet
weight of soil.
 The reading in speedy moisture can be corrected as:

W = (Wsp / 1-Wsp)×100
W = moisture content in percentage

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

 2017R/2016-CIV-102

 PROCEDURE:
 Take soil sample and place some amount of soil in oven to determine
moisture content by oven dry method.
 To use speedy moisture meter, weigh 26 gram of soil and place it in the
cap of tester.
 Place three scoops of calcium carbide in meter and two steel balls in
the chamber.
 Keep in mind the before proper closing of cap the soil sample and calcium
carbide should not come in contact with each other.
 After tightening the clamp, shake the speedy moisture chamber.
 Shaking will break lumps of soil and calcium carbide will react with soil to
produce gas.
 This gas will give the reading in dial of speedy moisture at the bottom.
 This is the % moisture content and can be corrected by above formula.
 Plot the graph between moisture content and moisture content as
obtained by speedy moisture meter.
 LIMITATIONS:
If the moisture content of the sample exceeds the limit of pressure gauge,
one half weight of the sample is used and the dial reading must be doubled.

 OBSERVATIONS AND CALCULATIONS:

 OVEN DRY METHOD:

SAMPLE NO. `1 2 3

CAN NO. 68 79 2
Wwet 46.45 45.46 41.29
Wdry 42.34 41.54 37.26
Wcan 17.55 17.54 14.18
Wodm 16.5% 16.3% 17.4%
 SPEEDY MOISTURE METER:
SAMPLE NO. 1 2 3

Wsp(%) 9.4 10.8 15.4

Wcorrected(%) 10.3 12.1 18.2

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

 2017R/2016-CIV-102

 COMMENTS:
The error is approximately 0.8 while reading the value of Dial
Gauge.

 CONCLUSION:
The moisture content determined from oven dry method is
somehow more accurate than speedy moisture because speedy moisture is a quick
procedure and there is a chance of error.

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT