EXPERIMENT 1 Consistency Limits

LIQUID LIMIT TEST

AIM:
To obtain the Liquid Limit of the given soil sample.

INTRODUCTION:
The physical properties of fine grained soils, especially of clay differ much at different water contents. Clay may be almost in liquid state, or it may show plastic behavior or may be very stiff depending on the moisture content. Plasticity is a property of outstanding importance for clayey soils, which may be explained as the ability to undergo changes in shape without rupture.

LIQUID LIMT:
It may be defined as the minimum water content at which the soil will flow under the application of a very small shearing force. The liquid limit is usually determined in the laboratory using a mechanical device. An alternate method using a cone penetrometer is also sometimes used for determining the liquid limit of soils. Liquid limit is the moisture content at which 25 blows in standard liquid limit apparatus will just close a groove of standardize dimensions by the grooving tool by a specified amount.

APPARATUS:
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Liquid limit device and grooving tools. Spatula Evaporating dish. Moisture cans. Balance with 0.1 gm accuracy Drying oven

PROCEDURE:
About 120 g of dry pulverized soil sample passing 425 micron IS sieve is weighed and mixed thoroughly with distilled water in the evaporating dish to form a uniform thick paste. The liquid limit device is adjusted to have a free fall of cup through 10 mm. A portion of the paste is placed in the cup above the lowest spot and squeezed down with the spatula to have a horizontal surface. The specimen is trimmed by firm strokes of spatula in such a way than the maximum depth of soil sample in the cap is 10 mm. The soil in the cup is divided along the diameter through the center line of the cam followed by firm strokes of the grooving tool so as to get a clean sharp groove as shown in fig. Grooving tool (b) may be used for all soils; whereas grooving tool (a) may be used only in clayey soils free from sand particles or fibrous materials. The crank is rotated at the rate of two revolutions per second (either by hand or electrically depending upon whether it is a hand operated or electrically operated machine) so that the cup is lifted and dropped. This is continued till the two halves of the soil cake come into contact at the bottom of the groove along a distance of about 10 mm and the number of blows given is recorded. A representative soil is taken, placed in the moisture container, lid placed over it and weighed. The container is dried in oven and the dry weight determined the next day for finding the moisture container of the soil. The operation are repeated for at least three more trials with slightly increased moisture container each time, noting the number of blows so that there are at least four uniformly distributed readings of number of blows between 10 and 40 blows.

Fig. 1.3 Liquid Limit Apparatus

Fig. 1.4 Grooving Tools

CALCULATIONS:
The flow curve is plotted by taking the number of blows in the log scale on the X axis and the water content in arithmetic scale on the Y axis, see fig. of observation sheet. The flow curve is straight line drawn on semi-logarithmic plot, as nearly as possible through three or more plotted points. The moisture content corresponding to 25 blows is read from this curve rounding off the nearest whole number and is reported as the liquid limit w 1 of the soil. The slope of the straight-line curve is the flow index. It may be calculated from the following formula: Flow index If = W 1 W 2 Log 10 n 2 n1 Hence if the flow curve is interpolated and moisture content w 10 and w 100 corresponding to 10 to 100 blows respectively are found, then the difference in these two water content would give the flow index of the soil.

PLASITC LIMIT TEST

AIM:
To find the plastic limit of the given soil.

THEORY:
Plastic limit is the moisture content at which a soil when rolled into thread of smaller diameter possible starts crumbling and has a diameter of 3 mm.

APPARATUS:
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) Glass plate. Evaporating dish Moisture can. Rod of 3 mm diameter. Balance with 0.1 gm accuracy Drying oven Spatula

PROCEDURE:
About 20 grams of dry pulverized soil passing 425 micron IS sieve is weighed out. The soil is mixed thoroughly with distilled water in the evaporating dish till the soil paste is plastic enough to be easily moulded with fingers. A small ball is formed with fingers and this is rolled between the fingers and the round glass plate to a thread. The pressure just sufficient to roll into a thread of uniform diameter should be used. The rate of rolling should be between 80 and 90 stokes per minute counting a stoke as one complete motion of hand forward and back to the starting position again. The rolling is done till the diameter of the thread is 3 mm. Then the soil is kneading together to a ball and rolled again to form thread. This process alternate rolling and kneading is continued until the thread crumbles under pressure required for rolling and the soil can no longer be rolled into a thread. If the crumbling starts at diameter less than 3 mm, then moisture content is more than plastic limit and if the diameter is greater while crumbling starts, the moisture content is lower. By trial, the thread which starts crumbling at 3 mm diameter under normal rolling should be obtained and this should be immediately transferred to the moisture container, lid placed and weighed to find the wet weight of the thread. The container is kept in the oven for about a day and dry weight found to determine the moisture content of the

thread. The above process is repeated to get at least three consistent values of the plastic limit.

CALCULATIONS:
Wt. of Wet Soil Wt. of Dry Soil Wt. of Water Content Water content = = = = Gm Gm Gm %