SIR ARTHUR LEWISCOMMUNITY COLLEGE

ENGINEERING AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

AY2020-2021; S1
SOIL MECHANICS
BSC106
CLASS TEST #1:
DATE:
DURATIUON:
NAME: XAVIER PRINCE

ATTEMPT ALL QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1:

The results from a standard compaction test are given in Table 1 below. Complete your own
tabulation and plot the compaction characteristics of the soil (i.e. dry density kg/m3 against
percent moisture content).
i) Determine the optimum water content and maximum dry density of the compacted
soil.

ii) On the same axes, plot the dry density versus water content curves for zero percent
and five percent air voids.
iii) Obtain the air voids content of the soil at the maximum dry density.
Take the volume of the mould as 945 cm3 and the specific gravity of the soil particle
as 2.65.

Bulk density determination data

Test 3 1 2 3 4 5
Mass of Mould and
6359 6481 6542 6540 6425
Compacted soil (g)
Mass of mould (g) 4420 4420 4420 4420 4420

Moisture content determination

Container Number 1 2 3 4 5
Mass of container and Wet
59.70 65.70 74.00 44.10 78.50
Soil (g)
 Mass of container and Dry
58.10 62.70 69.60 40.70 70.10
Soil (g)

Question 2:

a) An undisturbed sample of clayey soil is found to have a wet weight of 285 N, a

dry weight of 250 N, and a total volume of 14x103 cm3 . If the specific gravity of
soil solids is 2.70, determine the water content, void ratio ,and the degree of
saturation.

b) If a soil sample has a dry unit weight of 19.5 KN/m3 , moisture content of 8% and
a specific gravity of solids particles is 2.67. Calculate the following: i) The void
 ratio. ii) Moisture and saturated unit weight. iii) The mass of water to be added to
cubic meter of soil to reach 80% saturation.

c) A soil sample has a void ratio of 0.72, moisture content = 12% and Gs = 2.72.
Determine the following: i) Dry unit weight. ii) Moist/Wet unit weight (KN/m3 ). iii) Weight
of water in KN/m3 to be added for 80% degree of saturation.