IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF

PROBLEMATIC SOILS

Presented by
Kulbir Singh Gill
Associate Professor, Deptt. of Civil Engineering,
GNDEC,Ludhiana
(kulbirgillkulbir@yahoo.co.in)
 FORMATION OF SOIL
 Soil is formed either by physical weathering or by chemical
weathering.
 Because of different processes of weathering ,soils exhibit
different characteristics.
 Physical weathered rock to some extent represents the parent
rock mass ,for instance sand and gravel.
 Where as chemically weathered rocks results in the
formation totally different material such as clay.
 Needless to say that sands and gravels are considered to be
the best material from civil engineering point of view.
 Except the situation where permeability is to be controlled.
 Clays shows huge volume change when exposed to moisture.
 CONTD….
 Soils are heterogenious in nature.

 Soils are also anisotropic.

 If the wind is the weathering agent ,it results in aeoline deposits which
are cohesion less in nature such as sands.

 If water is the agent for movement of weathered rock products, it results

in the formation of alluvial deposit and their suitability as construction
material is varying from poor to fair.

 Other deposit are glacial, marine , beach, etc. Residual deposits are the
one which is not transported to farther distances.

 Suitability of any soil can be assessed based on its properties.

 PROPERTIES OF SOILS
 The soil properties include index and engineering properties.

 The index properties are specific gravity, void ratio , liquid limit,
plastic limit, shrinkage limit, relative density, dry density,
porosity, initial water content, grains size distribution etc.

 The engineering properties are shear strength, compressibility

and permeability.

 Unlike other material, soil behavior is influenced by many factors

such as mineralogy, water content, void ratio, soil structure, pore
fluid characteristics (Ion concentration , valancy of ion , dielectric
constant) , temperature, drainage, condition, strain rate, aging
etc
IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF
SOILS

 Beside the complexity of understanding soil, geotechnical

engineers made their best efforts to group the soil based on its
specific response to different environmental conditions

 Soil can be classified as highly compressible and soil of low

compressibility, expansive & non expansive, sensitive &
insensitive, high plastic & low plastic, very soft to stiff clay, loose
and dense sand etc.

 In this note, the identification and classification of different soils

are presented in order to classify the good and poor soil,
otherwise called as Problematic soil.
 LIQUID LIMIT
Liquid limit values of soils may be described as low,
intermediate, high very high or extra high plasticity as given
below in Table .

Plasticity Classified as Liquid limit (%)

Low 20 to 35
Intermediate 35 to 50
High 50 to 70
Very high 70 to 90
Extra high Over 90
 PLASTICITY INDEX
 No uniform standard is adopted in classifying degree of plasticity
of soils. However, the classification given below is approximately
the one which is often used and hence is recommended

Soil classified as Plasticity Index (%)

Non – Plastic 0-5

Moderately Plastic 5-16

Plastic 16-35

Highly plastic Over 35

 SHRINKAGE LIMIT
 Shrinkage limit of soil is an indication of not only the shrinkage
potential of clays but also an indicative of swelling nature.
 Swelling and Shrinkage Classification based on Shrinkage Limit

Classified as Shrinkage Shrinkage limit

table / (%)
Swelling detail
Very Low <1
Low 8 to 10
Intermediate 11 to 15
High 16 to 20
Very high Over 20
INDIAN STANDARD CLASSIFICATION
SYSTEM
 The fine-grained soils in ISC system are subdivided into three
categories of low, medium and high compressibility .

 Coarse-grained soils, when 50% or more of the total material by

weight is retained on 75 micron IS sieve.

 Fine-grained soils, when more than 50% of the total material

passes 75 micron IS sieve.

 If the soil is highly organic and contains a large percentage of

organic matter and particles of decomposed vegetation, it is kept
in a separate category marked as peat (Pt).
 MAJOR SOIL GROUPS

Cohesive Granular soils or

soils Cohesionless soils

Clay Silt Sand Gravel Cobble Boulder

0.002 0.075 2.36 63 200

Grain size
(mm)

Fine Coarse
grain grain soils
soils
10
 100

80
% Passing hydrometer sieve

60
fines sands gravels

40

D10 = 0.013 mm
20
D
30
D30 = 0.47 mm
D60 = 7.4 mm
0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100

Grain size (mm)

GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTION CURVE

 Can find % of gravels, sands, fines

 Define D10, D30, D60.. as above.
CLASSIFYING FINES

Purely based on LL and PI

Intermediate plasticity
60 Low High
plasticity plasticity
Liquid Limit

40
Clays

20 Silts

0
0 20 50 100
35
Liquid Limit
12
 ATTERBERG LIMITS

Border line water contents, separating

the different states of a fine grained soil

water
0 Shrinkage Plastic Liquid
content
limit limit limit

brittle-solid semi-solid plastic liquid

13
FIELD IDENTIFICATION OF SOILS
 The soils can be identified in the field by conducting the following
simple tests.

 The sample is first spread on a flat surface.

 If more than 50% of the particles are visible to the naked eye
(unaided eye), the soil is coarse-grained; otherwise, it is fine
grained
 CONTD.

 To differentiate fine sand from silt, dispersion test is adopted.

When a spoonful of soil is poured in a jar full of water, fine sand
settles in a minute or so, whereas silt takes 15 minutes or more.

 Dilatancy (reaction to shaking) test.

 Toughness test.

 Dry strength test.

 These tests helps in classifying the different types of soil.

 CLASSIFICATION BASED ON FIELD TESTS

Test ML CL OL MI CI OI MH CH OH

Dilatan Quick None to Slow Quick to None Slow Slow to None None to
cy very slow slow none very
slow

Toughne None Medium Low None Medium Low Low to High Low to
ss medium mediu
m

Dry None of Medium Low Low Medium Low to Low to High to Medium
Streng low to high medium medium very to high
t high
h
 GENERAL BEHAVIOR OF GRAVELS

Soil Group Permeability Compressibility Shear Strength Workability

Pervious Negligible Excellent Excellent

GW
Very pervious
GP Negligible Good Good
Semi-pervious to
GM
impervious Good Good
Negligible
GC
Impervious
Good to fair Good
Very low
 GENERAL BEHAVIOR OF SAND

Soil Group Permeability Compressibility Shear Strength Workability

SW Pervious Negligible Excellent Excellent

SP Pervious Very low Good Fair

SM Semi-pervious to Low Good Fair

impervious

SC Impervious Low Good to fair Good

GENERAL BEHAVIOR OF SILT AND CLAY OF MEDIUM
PLASTICITY

Soil Group Permeability Compressibility Shear Strength Workability

Medium Fair
Semi-pervious to impervious Fair
ML, MI

Medium
Fair Good to fair
CL, CI Impervious

Medium
Semi-pervious to impervious Fair
Fair
OL, OI
GENERAL BEHAVIOR OF SILTS AND CLAYS OF HIGH
PLASTICITY

Soil Group Permeability Compressibility Shear Strength Workability

MH
Semi-pervious to
Fair to poor
impervious
High
Poor

CH Impervious
High Poor Poor

High Poor Poor

Impervious
OH
CLASSIFICATION OF EXPANSIVE SOILS
 Damages to structures, property and life resulting from swell-
shrink characteristics of expansive soils have been reported from
many parts of the world including India.

 India, Africa, Australia, Israel, South America and United States

of America possess vast tracts covered with such soils.

 Our Black Cotton soil is an expansive soil.

 It extends nearly one-fifth of our country, chiefly in the states of

Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Southern
Uttar Pradesh, Eastern Rajasthan, Karnataka and parts of
Andhra Pradesh
 CONTD.
 Most of the expansive soils found in India are black in
color and are good for growing cotton.

 Some of these soils are reddish brown and yellowish grey

in color.

 These soils are generally found near the surface, with

layer thickness varying from 0.5 m to 10.m, and sometime
more than 10 meters.
 CONTD.

 Once an expansive soil is encountered at the project site, the

following items need to be given specific attention.
 Swell – shrink characteristics of soil encountered.
 Thickness and depth of various underlying soil layers
 Depths of significant moisture variation.
 Local climate and hydrology.
 Floor-foundation system; ability to accommodate and tolerate the
soil behavior.
 Methods of improving the soil behavior
CHECKLIST FOR RECOGNITION OF EXPANSIVE SOIL
S.No Item to be checked Answers
Yes No
1 Are the soils near by the project area
known to be expansive?

2 Are the evidences of cracks in walls, curb,

sidewalks and pavements etc. in nearby
construction?
3 Are there shrinkage cracks in the soils in
dry season?

4 Does the soil behaves very sticky and

sticking to the shoes?

5 If you take a lump of dry soil and try to

break it between the fingers, do you find
the soil hard and difficult to break.
 IDENTIFICATION OF EXPANSIVE SOILS
S.No Degree of Liquid limit Shrinkage Plasticity
expansion (%) limit index
(%) (%)

1 Very high 60-70 >30 >35

High 40-60 20-30 20-35
2 Medium 30-40 10-20 10-20
3
4 Low 20-30 <10 <10
IDENTIFICATION OF EXPANSIVE SOIL ON THE BASIS
OF GSD

S.No Degree of Clay fraction Colloidal content

expansion (%) (%)

1 Very high >28 >28

2 High 20-28 20-28

3 Medium 12-20 15-20

4 Low 0-12 <15

 SENSITIVITY OF CLAYS
 Some clays have a curious property called sensitivity, which
means their strength in a remolded or highly disturbed condition
is less than that in an undisturbed condition at the same
moisture content.

 These highly sensitive clays are called quick clays, are found in
certain areas of Eastern Canada, parts of Scandinavia, and else
where.

 This behavior occurs because these clays have a very delicate

structure that is disturbed when they are remolded.

 The degree of sensitivity is defined by the parameter S1, the ratio

of undisturbed shear strength to the remolded shear strength
CLASSIFICATION OF SENSITIVE SOILS

Classification Sensitivity, S1

Low sensitivity 2-4

Medium sensitivity 4-8

High sensitivity 8-16

Quick >16
CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS ON THE BASIS OF IN SITU
TESTS

Correlation between N and Denseness of Sand

N Denseness 

0-4 Very Loose 25° - 32°

4-10 Loose 27° - 35°

10-30 Medium 30° - 40°

30-50 Dense 35° = 45°

> 50 Very Dense > 45°

 CONTD.
Correlation between N and qu

N Consistency qu (kN / m2)

0-2 Very Soft < 25

2-4 Soft 25 – 50

4-8 Medium 50 – 100

8 - 15 Stiff 100 – 200

15 – 30 Very Stiff 200 – 400

> 30 Hard > 400

IDENTIFICATION OF DISPERSIVE SOILS
 Dispersion occurs in soils when the repulsive forces between
clay particles exceed the attractive forces thus bringing about
deflocculating so that in the presence of relatively pure water
the particles repel each other to form colloidal suspensions.

 Dispersive soils have a moderate to high clay material

content but there are no significant differences in the clay
fractions of dispersive and non-dispersive soils, except that
soils with less than 10% clay particles may not have enough
colloids to support dispersive piping.

 Dispersive soils contain a higher content of dissolved sodium

(up to 12%) in their pore water than ordinary soils.
 CONTD.
 The sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) is used to quantify the
role of sodium where free salts are present in the pore
water and is defined as:
 SAR= Na/ 0.5(Ca+Mg ) with units expressed in meq/litre of
the saturated extract.

 . Gerber and Harmse (1987) considered an SAR value

greater than 10 indicative of dispersive soils, between 6
and 10 as intermediate, and less than 6 as non-dispersive.
 CONTD.
 The presence of exchangeable sodium is the main chemical factor
contributing towards dispersive behavior in soil.

 This is expressed in terms of the exchangeable sodium

percentage (ESP):

 ESP= Exchangeable sodium x 100/cation exchange capacity.

 Where the units are given in meq/100 g of-dry clay.

 CONTD.
 Soils with ESP values above 15% are highly dispersive (Bell and
Maud, 1994). Those with low cation exchange values (15 meq/100
g of clay) have been found to be completely non- dispersive at
ESP values of 6% or below.

 Unfortunately, dispersive soils cannot be differentiated from non-

dispersive soils by routine soil mechanics testing.

 Although a number of special tests have been used to recognize

dispersive soils, no single test can be relied on completely to
identify them (Bell and Maud, 1994). These can be divided into
physical and chemical tests. The former include the crumb test,
the dispersion or double hydrometer test, the modified
hydrometer or turbidity ratio test and the pinhole test.
 CONTD.
 Serious piping damage to embankments and failures of earth
dams have occurred when dispersive soils have been used in
their construction (Bell and Maud, 1 994).

 Severe erosion damage also can form deep gullies on earth

embankments after rainfall.

 In many areas where dispersive soils are found there is no

economical alternative other than to use these soils for the
construction of earth dams. However, experience indicates that if
an earth dam is built with careful construction control and
incorporates filters, then it should be safe enough even if it is
constructed with dispersive soils.
 COLLAPSIBLE SOIL

 Collapsible soils, which are sometimes referred to as metastable

soils, are unsaturated soils that undergo a large volume change
upon saturation.
 This volume change may or may not be the result of the
application of additional load.
 Foundations that are constructed on such soils may undergo
large and sudden settlement if and when the soil under them
becomes saturated with an unanticipated supply of moisture.
 This moisture may come from several sources, such as (a) broken
water pipelines, (b) leaky sewers, (c) drainage from reservoirs
and swimming pools, (d) slow increase of groundwater, and so on.
 This type of settlement generally causes considerable structural
damage. Hence identification of collapsing soils during field
exploration is crucial.
 CONTD.
 The majority of naturally occurring collapsing soils are aeolin
that is, wind- deposited sand and/or silts, such as loess, aeolic
beaches, and volcanic dust deposits.

 These deposits have high void ratios and low unit weights and
are cohesionless or only slightly cohesive.

 Loess deposits have silt-sized particles. The cohesion in loess may

be the result of the presence of clay coatings around the silt-size
particles, which holds them in a rather stable condition in an
unsaturated state.

 In the United States, large parts of the Midwest and arid West
have such types of deposit. Loess deposits are also found over 1
5%-20% of Europe and over large parts of China
 RELATION OF COLLAPSE POTENTIAL TO THE
SEVERITY OF FOUNDATION PROBLEMS

Cp(%) Severity of problem

0-1 No Trouble

1-5 Moderate Trouble

5-10 Trouble

10-20 Severe Trouble

>20 Very Severe Trouble

 SUMMARY
 Stability of any civil engineering structures lies primarily with
the response of soil under the influence of external loading.

 It is a must for any civil engineer to understand the type of soil

and their engineering characteristics prior to the use of same for
any applications.

 If there is no proper importance given to the soil before start of

construction activities in the beginning itself, then the
rectification of damage to the structure, because of soil
movement, if any would be much higher than the cost of the
project itself.
THANKS