UNIFIED SOIL CLASSIFICATION AND SYMBOL CHART LABORATORY CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA

PLASTICITY CHART
COARSE-GRAINED SOILS
FINE-GRAINED SOILS
(more than 50% of material is larger than No. 200 sieve size.)
(50% or more of material is smaller than No. 200 sieve size.)
Well-graded gravels, gravel-sand
mixtures, little or no fines
greater than 4;
greater than 4;
between 1 and 3
between 1 and 3
=
=
=
=
Clean Gravels (Less than 5% fines)
C
C
C
C
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
u
u
c
c
60
60
30
30
x
x
10
10
10
10
60
60
Clean Sands (Less than 5% fines)
Above "A" line with P.I. between
4 and 7 are borderline cases
requiring use of dual symbols
Limits plotting in shaded zone
with P.I. between 4 and 7 are
borderline cases requiring use
of dual symbols.
Determine percentages of sand and gravel from grain-size curve. Depending
on percentage of fines (fraction smaller than No. 200 sieve size),
coarse-grained soils are classified as follows:
Less than 5 percent
More than 12 percent
5 to 12 percent
GW, GP, SW, SP
GM, GC, SM, SC
Borderline cases requiring dual symbols
Gravels with fines (More than 12% fines)
Sands with fines (More than 12% fines)
Well-graded sands, gravelly sands,
little or no fines
Silty gravels, gravel-sand-silt mixtures
Atterberg limits below "A"
line or P.I. less than 4
Atterberg limits below "A"
line or P.I. less than 4
Atterberg limits above "A"
line with P.I. greater than 7
Atterberg limits above "A"
line with P.I. greater than 7
Silty sands, sand-silt mixtures
Inorganic silts and very fine sands, rock
flour, silty of clayey fine sands or clayey
silts with slight plasticity
Inorganic clays of low to medium
plasticity, gravelly clays, sandy clays,
silty clays, lean clays
Inorganic silts, micaceous or
diatomaceous fine sandy or silty soils,
elastic silts
Peat and other highly organic soils
Poorly-graded gravels, gravel-sand
mixtures, little or no fines
Not meeting all gradation requirements for GW
Not meeting all gradation requirements for GW
Poorly graded sands, gravelly sands,
little or no fines
Clayey gravels, gravel-sand-clay
mixtures
Clayey sands, sand-clay mixtures
Inorganic clays of high plasticity, fat
clays
Organic silts and organic silty clays of
low plasticity
Organic clays of medium to high
plasticity, organic silts
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
LIQUID LIMIT (LL) (%)
CL
CL+ML
CH
P
L
A
S
T
I
C
I
T
Y
I
N
D
E
X
(
P
I
)
(
%
)
60 70 80 90 100
GW GW
GRAVELS
SANDS
SILTS
AND
CLAYS
SILTS
AND
CLAYS
HIGHLY
ORGANIC
SOILS
More than 50%
of coarse
fraction larger
than No. 4
sieve size
50% or more
of coarse
fraction smaller
than No. 4
sieve size
Liquid limit
less than
50%
Liquid limit
50%
or greater
SW SW
GM GM
SM SM
ML
MH
PT
GP
GP
SP
SP
GC GC
SC SC
CL
CH
OL
OH
MH&OH
A LINE:
PI = 0.73(LL-20)
ML&OL
Virginia Department of Transportation
Page 1 of 2,
Revised 05-23-03
UNIFIED SOIL
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM