AKINMADE OLUWATOSIN DANIEL

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

SEIVE ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

Gradation of soils or grain size distribution is a very important that it helps in the determination
of soils load carrying capacity and it shows that the mass of the soil constitutes particles of
different sizes analysis. The grain size features of soils that are predominantly coarse grained are
evaluated by a sieve analysis .A nest of sieves is prepared by stacking test sieves one above the
other with the largest opening at the top followed by sieves of successively smaller openings and
a catch pan at the bottom.

APPARATUS

1 . Sieves sizes as shown below placed on a mechanical vibrator.

2. Brush to clean the sieves for any particle on the sieves.

3. Weighing machine

4. Weighing pan.
PROCEDURE:
1 .Particles of different sizes are mechanically separated by passing the soil through a stack of
sieves with progressively decreasing size opening from top to bottom.

2 . The dry weight of the soil in each sieve is then determine .From the lab we got 5000g of
the sample that we use to determine its gradation and the below table shows the result obtained.

3 .The cumulative weight of all material larger than each sieve size is determined and divided
by the total sample weight to obtain the percentage retained for that sieve size .

4. The percentage passing the sieve is obtained by subtracting the percentage retained from
100%

4. the percentage passing each sieve that has been determined will be plotted against the
logarithm of sieve size opening .The percentage passing is arithmetic scale in y axis and the
sieves sizes scale in the x axis.

DATA

Sieve size Weight retained

37.5 0
20 285.6
10 3116.9
5 1460.1
Pan 132.7
DATA ANALYSIS

Sieve size Weight Cumulative Cumulative % passing

retained weight %retained
retained
37.5 0 0 0 100
20 285.6 285.6 6 94
10 3116.9 3402.5 68 32
5 1460.1 4862.6 97 3
pan 137.4 5000 100 0
CUMMULATIVE % RETIANED.

For sieve size 37.5 , 0/0 ×100 = 0

For sieve size 20, 285.6/5000 ×100 = 5.7≈6

For sieve sizes 10 , 3402.5/5000×100 = 68.05≈ 68

For sieve size 5 , 4862.6/5000×100 =97.252≈97

For pan, 5000/5000 ×100 = 100

PERCENTAGE PASSING.

For sieve size 37.5, 100 – 0 = 100

For sieve size 20, 100 – 6 = 94

For sieve sizes 10 100 – 68 = 32

For sieve size 5 100 – 97 = 3

For pan, 100 – 100 = 0

DISCUSION OF RESULT.

Depending on the gradation the soil can be classified as poorly graded, well graded
or gap graded (certain size missing)

Coefficient of uniformity CU = D60/D10 for gravel if CU is > 4 and

if CC is between 1 and 3 then the gravel is well graded and vice versa.

CC = coefficient of curvature = (D30)2/D60D10

From the graph shown below our D10 = 7 ,D30 = 10 , and D60 = 12

Hence CU = D60/D10 = 12/7 = 1.714

CC = coefficient of curvature = (D30)2/D60D10 = 102 / [12× 7 ] = 1.2

CONCLUSION

From the above analysis the coefficients didn’t meet the two above criteria coefficient of
curvature is 1.2 which is than 1 but the Coefficient of uniformity is less than 4 hence
we can classify the gravel as poorly graded. And the particle size distribution is shown in the
below figure.