Moisture Content

 Moisture content is a measure indicating the amount of water

the rock material contains.

 It is simply the ratio of the volume of water to the bulk volume

of the rock material.
 It is always expressed in percentage.

 Mathematical formula:
Moisture Content

Mineral skeleton
Moisture Content/Pore Water Pressure
 Moisture content/Pore water pressure affects the rock mass by:
 Decreasing the strength
 Changing the rock mass behavior from ductile to brittle.

Mineral skeleton
 Due to pore water pressure the strength of rock mass
decreases while deformation increases.

 UCS and UTS of the rock mass decreases as:

• UCS’ = UCS-P
• UTS’ = UTS-P

 Shear strength of rock and rock mass also decrease, due to

decrease in Normal load. i.e
Ϭn’=Ϭn-p
 Cohesion and angel of internal friction are not affected by
pore water pressure.
 Without pore water pressure the material behaves like
ductile material

❑ With pore water pressure material behaves like brittle

material .
 PRACTICAL-3

Title : “Standard Test Procedure For The Determination Of The

(Natural) Water Content Of Rock Material””
 Scope of the test
The objective of the test is to determine the water content of the rock
material as it was retrieved in the field. .

 Apparatus used
- Oven (24 hours at 105° C +/- 5°C)
- Desiccator
- Digital balance with accuracy of 0.01 g and range of 100
- Caliper with accuracy of 0.1mm
- Sample container
 PRACTICAL-3
 Procedure
 A representative sample must consist of at least 10 lumps, fulfilling the
following conditions:
- the mass of each lump should be at least 50 g
- the minimum lump dimension should be at least ten times the
maximum grain size of the rock.

 The container with the lid is cleaned and its mass (A) is determined.

 The lumps are located in a container, the lid placed, and the mass (B) is
determined with an accuracy of 0.1 g.

 The lumps are kept in the container, but with the lid removed, and dried
in an oven to constant mass (generally 24 hours is enough) at a
temperature of 105°C. After replacing the lid, the lumps are cooled in a
desiccator for 30 minutes..

 The mass (C) of the container with the lumps is determined with an
accuracy of 0.1 g
 PRACTICAL-3
 Observations and Calculations

• Mass of Mass of
Container+Sample Container+Dry Sample % Moisture Content
Sample No. (B) (C) (B-C/B-A*100)
1

10