Indian Institute Of Technology Gandhinagar

Soil Mechanics Laboratory CE-301

Laboratory Report 5

ESTIMATION OF ATTERBERG LIMITS

Submitted by:
Group 3
Amar Baroliya (16110010), Ishank Singh (16110064), Jitesh Mittal (16110067),
Kishan Khichi (16110078) , Mayank Kumar (16110090) & Muhammed Sinan RK (16110097)

LIQUID LIMIT TEST

THEORY:
Liquid limit is the minimum water content at which the groove is made by standard
tool into the sample of soil which is taken into the Casagrande’s apparatus, closes
for 10 mm under an impact of 25 blows in the device.

NEED AND SCOPE:

● Classification of soils.
● Liquid limit is significant to the general properties as well as stress history.
This is very important in construction.
● Liquid limit help us to find the compression index, which will help us in
settlement analysis.
● If the natural moisture content is near to liquid limit, soil can be regarded as
soft. If it is lesser than liquid limit, then soil is regarded as brittle and stiffer.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
1. Balance
2. Casagrande’s Liquid limit device
3. Grooving tool
 4. Mixing dishes
5. Spatula
6. Electrical oven
7. Squeeze bottle

PROCEDURE:

● 250 gm of oven dried soil and soil that has passed through the ​425 µm sieve
(that is fine soil is taken) is taken in an evaporating dish, and distilled water
is added to soil and is mixed thoroughly till a uniform paste is formed (the
paste should be formed, so that it may require approximately 15 to 30 drops
for the closing of the standard groove).
● Put a portion of the uniform paste prepared in the Liquid Limit device’s cup
and spread it with the help of spatula by providing few strokes. Please note
that while doing this the cup should be at rest position, otherwise it may
disturb the calibration of the device.
● It should be noted that approximately ⅔ rd​​ of the cup should be filled with
the paste. And the amount filled in each repetition of the experiment should
be tried to be kept same.
● A groove is to be made in the soil pat at the centerline of the cup, with the
help of the proper grooving tool. A clean groove is formed of dimensions
11mm wide at top, 2mm wide at bottom and 8mm deep. The grooving tool
should be kept perpendicular while making the groove.
● With the help of the turning crank of the liquid limit test device the cup is
lifted and dropped till the groove is closed (that is the when the two parts of
the soil cake come in contact). The crank should be rotated approximately at
the rate of two revolutions per second, and the rate should be tried to be kept
constant for the repetition of the process. Record the number of blows as N.
● Take some amount of the soil pat, present in the cup, for the determination
of the moisture content.
● Repeat the test to obtain at least six readings whose number of blows is
between 15 and 35.
TABULATION AND RESULTS:

Determination
Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Countainr number Z18 Z23 D23 60B 50B D25 Z10
Weight of container 28.53 28.21 28.18 26.55 24.64 29.48
(w​1​) 27.54
Weight of container + 39.38 37.14 36.04 38.49 42.53 38.70
wet soil (w​2​) 42.2
Weight of container + 37.10 35.29 34.42 36.02 38.86 36.80
dry soil (w​3​) 39.01
Weight of water 2.28 1.85 1.62 2.47 3.67 1.90 3.19
(W​w​=w​2​-w​3​)
Weight of dry soil 8.57 7.08 6.24 9.47 14.22 7.32 11.47
(W​s​=w​3​-w​1​)
Moisture content(%) = 26.60 26.13 25.96 26.08 25.81 25.95 27.81
(W​w​/W​s​)
No. of blows 20 22 25 30 33 34 16
To get the best linear fit we have ignored the readings corresponding to blows 34
and 22.
Equation comes out to be :​Y = -5.815*X + 34.47 where X is log (No.of blows)
and Y is the moisture content.
At No. of blows =25, moisture content = Liquid Limit = 26.34 %
Also, from the equation, Flow Index = 5.815
 PLASTIC LIMIT TEST

THEORY:
● Plastic limit is determined by rolling a fine portion of soil on a smooth flat
surface.
● It is the moisture content at which the soil threads break apart when it attains
a diameter of 3.2 mm.
● If a soil cannot be rolled to a diameter less than 3.2 mm, then the soil is
considered as non-plastic.

NEED AND SCOPE:

● Classification of soils.
● Plastic Limit is the percentage water content at the boundary between plastic
and semisolid state of soil.
● Plastic limit of soils highly used along with other soil properties to correlate
with engineering behaviour such as compressibility, permeability,
compactability, shrink-swell and shear strength

PROCEDURE:
● 20 gm of oven dried soil and soil that has passed through the ​425 µm sieve
(that is fine soil is taken) is taken in an evaporating dish, and distilled water
is added to soil and is mixed thoroughly till a uniform paste is formed (the
paste formed should be plastic enough so that it can be molded easily).
● Now prepare several ellipsoidal shaped soil masses by squeezing soil in
between the fingers. After it take soil masses and roll them on the glass
plates through fingers. The pressure is just enough to make threads of
uniform diameter throughout the length. Keep rolling rate in between 60 to
90 strokes per minute.
● We need to continue this process till we get the threads of diameter 3 mm.
● If the thread doesn’t crumble at the diameter of 3 mm then we need to
kneading the soil together uniformly and re-roll.
● Continue the process until we the threads of 3 mm.
 ● For obtaining water content collect some crumbled pieces of threads.(app.
10 gm)
● We have to repeat this process 3 times and have to take average of all.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
1. Porcelain dish
2. Squeeze bottle and Spatula
3. Balance
4. Ground glass plate for rolling the specimen
5. Containers to determine the moisture content
6. Electrical oven

PRESENTATION OF DATA:

Description Trial 1 Trial 2

Container No. B​7 P​5
Wt. of Container (W​1​) 20.40 27.67
Wt. of Container + wet sample (W​2​) 26.22 38.07
Wt. of Container + dry sample (W​3​) 25.47 36.66
Wt. of dry sample (W​3​ - W​1​) 5.07 8.99
Wt. of water in the soil (W​2​ - W​3​) 0.75 1.43
W −W 14.79 15.91
Water content (%) = W 2 −W 3 × 100
3 1

Average Plastic Limit (in %) 15.35

P lasticity Index = LL − P L = 26.34 − 15.35 = 10.99%

P lasticity Index 10.99

T oughness Index = F low Index = 5.815 = 1.89
As the toughness index is greater than one, so the soil is not friable and thus it may
not be crushed easily at plastic limit.

SHRINKAGE LIMIT TEST

THEORY:
Shrinkage limit is defined as the minimum water content in saturated condition of
soil at which further reduction in water content does not lead to decrease in volume
of the soil. It acts as boundary between semi solid state and plastic state.

NEED AND SCOPE:

● As the soil moisture changes (either by natural environments or by artificial
means), soil changes its state from solid to semi-solid to plastic to liquid
stages. As water content reduces, volume also reduces. Then a stage will
come where further decrease in water content will not reduce the volume,
this water content is termed as shrinkage limit.
● It gives a quantitative indication of how much moisture changes can occur
before a significant volume change.
● To understand the behavior of change in volume of soil.
● Shrinkage limit useful in areas where soils undergo large and frequent
volume as a result of water content changes.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
1. Evaporating dish of porcelain
2. Spatula and straight edge
3. Balance
4. Shrinkage dish - circular, porcelain or non-corroding metal dish
5. Glass cup 50-55 mm in diameter and 25 mm in height
6. Glass plates - two, 75×75 mm one plate of plain glass and the other prongs
7. Oven
8. Wash bottle containing distilled water
9. Graduate - glass, with capacity of 25 ml
 10. Mercury

PROCEDURE​:
Preparation of soil paste
Take 100 g of soil sample from a thoroughly mixed portion of material passing
through 425 microns. From that, take about 30 g of soil in an evaporating dish and
add distilled water (till water content is slightly higher than plastic limit), mix it
thoroughly into a creamy paste.

Filling the shrinkage dish

1. Coat the inside surface of shrinkage dish with Vaseline in order to prevent
soil sticking in the dish.
2. Fill the 1/3rd of dish with soil paste prepared earlier and tap it gently on
table until soil flows till the edge. Apparently there would be no air in soil
after this. Repeat the same process for 2nd and 3rd layer and flush out the
excess soil and make the top surface smooth.
3. Immediately take the weight of dish with wet soil (weight of dish alone must
be already taken).
4. Air the wet soil for 6 to 8 hrs (until the color of pat turns to light from dark).
Then oven dry (105-110 degree C) for 12 to 16 hrs.
5. Remove dried dish with soil cake from oven and take the dry weight.
6. Now take the volume of empty shrinkage dish which is equal to the initial
wet soil. Place the shrinkage dish in evaporating dish and pour mercury till it
overflows slightly. Now press it with a plane class and let the excess
mercury flow out. Carefully, without spilling mercury out, pour the mercury
in the shrinkage dish to measuring jar and record the volume.

Volume of dry soil pat

To determine the volume of dry soil pat by taking it out from the shrinkage dish
and immersing it in the glass cup full of mercury, we do the following steps-
● Put the glass cup in the bigger size of cup and fill it until it gets overflow
with mercury.
● Now, remove the extra mercury by covering the cup with glass plate with
prongs and pressing it. Here, make sure that no air bubbles are entrapped.
● Wipe out the outside of the glass cup to remove the adhering mercury. After
that put it in another larger clean and empty dish.
● Now, put the dry soil pat on the mercury and submerged it with the help of
glass plate having pins one of its side. Due to this mercury spills over into
the larger plate.
● Fill the mercury in measuring jar which is displaced by dry soil pat and find
the soil pat directly and we also find its weight by balance.
TABULATION AND RESULTS:

Description Trial 1. Trial 2 Trial 3

Container No. K2 K9 K10
Wt. of container in gm, W​1 31.23 28.46 31.41
Wt. of container + wet soil pat in gm, W​2 72.35 70.69 72.73
Wt. of container + dry soil pat in gm, W​3 61.76 59.59 62.05
Wt. of oven dry soil pat, W​0​ in gm (W​3​-W​1​) 30.53 31.13 30.64
Wt. of water in gm (W​2​-W​3​) 10.59 11.10 10.68
Moisture content (%)
W = (W​2​-W​3​)(W​3​-W​1​)*100 34.69 35.66 34.86
Volume of wet soil pat (V) (cm​3​) 22.00 23.00 22.00
Volume of dry soil pat (V​d​)(cm​3​) =
(W​m​)/(G​m​)

By mercury displacement method

A.Wt. of displaced mercury in gm (W​m​)

B.specific gravity of the mercury (G​m​) 15.89 16.63 15.93
Shrinkage limit (W​s​) =
(W-((V-V​d​)/W​0​))*100 14.68 15.19 15.06
Shrinkage ratio (R) = 1.92 1.87 1.92
((V-V​d​)/V​d​)/(W-W​s​)*100

Average Shrinkage Limit = 14.98%

Average Shrinkage Ratio = 1.91
SUMMARY OF THE EXPERIMENT:
In this experiment, we found that the:
● Liquid Limit of the Soil = 26.34%
● Plastic Limit of the Soil = 15.35%
● Shrinkage Limit of the Soil = 14.98%
● Flow Index = 5.815
● Plasticity Index = 10.99%
● Toughness Index = 1.89
● Shrinkage Ratio = 1.91

SOURCES OF ERRORS:
● Meniscus error while measuring volume of Hg.
● Approximate radius and water content while making thread of soil in plastic
limit test.
● Non linear grove also causes of a error in liquid limit test.
● Non uniformity in moving crankshaft.
● Time difference while counting number of blows is also a main reason of
error.
● While flushing out the mercury by the glass plate there is possibility of some
amount of mercury comes out in this process.
● Each time there is slight difference in the amount of sample in Casagrande
apparatus for liquid limit test.

REFERENCES:
Lab manual handouts provided in the lab as well as the discussion in the lab.