University of Sulaimani

College of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department

Practical of Soil Mechanics

Test No.: 6

Test Name: plastic limit test

Group No.: 4

Sub group Name: D

Student Names:

1-amir Osman

2-alan hiwa

3-zhila muhamad

4-rame xalil

5-miran said
 2019 – 2020

Test No. 6:plastic limit test

1. Objectives

Determination of Plastic Limit is as important as Liquid Limit so as to

ascertain Plasticity Index, Ip of the soil. The plastic limit of a soil is the
moisture content, expressed as a percentage of the weight of the oven-dry
soil, at the boundary between the plastic and semi-solid states of
consistency. It is the moisture content at which a soil will just begin to
crumble when rolled into a thread ⅛ inch (3 mm) in diameter using a ground
glass plate or other acceptable surface.

2. Equipment

1. Porcelain evaporating dish

2. Spatula
3. Plastic squeeze bottle with water
4. Moisture can
5. Ground glass plate
6. Balance sensitive up to 0.01 g
3. Procedure
we separate the 20 gm of soil and then we mix with water with specific amount
and then we take the moist soil into four parts in rounded shape then we rolled
it in speed of 80 stroke per minute to reduce the diameter of the rolled soil to
3.18mm when we achieved this diameter we sae it to know that if the rolled soil
have any shrinkage or not if the soil have a shrinkage we take same part of it
and then we balance it and take it into the oven to take weight 3 dry but if the
rolled soil in this speed have not any shrinkage
again we round it in circular shape and again we roll it to achieve the shrinkage
in specific time
and
why we do this same procedure again ?
in this process we dry some of moist content by friction in our hand.
4. Calculation
 5. Discussion and Conclusion

We have done this test and we get that this test To determine the value of the
liquid limit of the soil sample. Liquid limit is the water content at which soil
changes from liquid to plastic state This test and plastic limit test will help
us to know the shear strength of the soil . Shear strength is a term used in
soil mechanics to describe the magnitude of the shear stress that a soil can
sustain. The shear resistance of soil is a result of friction and interlocking of
particles, and possibly cementation or bonding at particle contacts . If we
know the shear strength of any soil we will know that this soil is good to
carry loads and construction or not because of this point this test and plastic
limit are important tests We have standard range for liquid limit
We have an error our teachers permitted us to do the test by ourselves but we did some
small mistakes during the test because we don’t have enough experience and we didn’t do
it very well I think we need to have more experience to get more accurate result .