The Origin of Soil and Grain Size

Lecture Outline:
• Origin of Soil
• Mechanical Analysis of Soil
• Soil Classification
Soil Investigation

A soils investigation program is necessary to provide information

for design and construction and for environmental assessment.
The purposes of soils investigation are:
1. to evaluate the general suitability of the site for the proposed
project
2. to enable an adequate and economical design to be made
3. to disclose and make provisions for difficulties that may arise
during construction due to ground and other local conditions

The following data can be obtained from soil investigation.

1. type, grading and nature of the soil
2. allowable bearing capacity of the soil
3. ground water level
Methods of Soil Investigation
The scope of a soils investigation depends on the type, size, and importance of the structure,
the client, the engineer’s familiarity with the soils at the site, and local building codes. The
following methods may be employed.

1. Open Excavation
A pit, eventually, can be excavated for exploring shallower depths, say of the order of 2 to 5 m, or so. Such a
pit can be easily excavated at the proposed construction site, if the soil has a bit of cohesion, and the soil
samples can be lifted from such different depths, besides making the easy visualization and examination of
the different strata. Even undisturbed soil samples can be lifted from such a pit by a process called chunk
sampling.

2. Boring Method
Soil samples can be lifted from deeper depths by drilling bore holes by using mechanical devices called
samplers.
1. Drilling a hole and visually examining the cuttings coming out from different depths
2. Lifting the soil samples from different depths by using mechanical devices called samplers
Methods of Boring
1. Auger boring
This is simplest method of boring a hole by hand drilling. These can be used for shallower depths generally
confined to depths of about 5 m or so. In cohesive and other soft soils above water table, augers may be used.

2. Wash boring
This is a simple and fastest method, used for making holes in all types of soils except boulders and rocks.

3. Percussion boring
This method is used to make hole in all types of soils including boulders and rocks.

4. Rotary boring (Mud rotary drilling)

This method is used to advance hole in rocks and soils. Rotating core barrels which are provided with
commercial diamond bits or a steel bit with slots are used for rotary drilling. This method is used to obtain the
rock cores, so this method is called as core boring or core drilling.
 Coarse-grained soils have good load bearing capacities and good drainage qualities,
and their strength and volume change characteristics are not significantly affected by
change in moisture conditions. They are practically incompressible when dense, but
significant volume changes can occur when they are loose. Vibrations intensify volume
changes in loose coarse-grained soils by rearranging the soil fabric into a dense
configuration.

Fine-grained soils have poor load bearing capacities compared with coarse-grained
soils. Fine-grained soils are practically impermeable, change volume and strength with
variations in moisture conditions, and are frost susceptible.
The results of the sieve analysis is shown below:

Diameter Mass retained

Sieve No.
(mm) (g)
4 4.76 25
8 2.38 80
10 2.00 110
20 0.84 160
40 0.42 180
60 0.25 220
80 0.180 380
100 0.149 590
200 0.074 110
pan 85
a. What is the percentage of the soil retained in No. 200
sieve?
b. What is the effective grain size of the soil in mm?
c. Determine the uniformity coefficient