DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY – DASMARIÑAS

Dasmariñas, Cavite
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Name: MOSTOLES, Glenn N. __ Date Performed: February 21, 2019

Course-Year & Section: CEE44 / G1 / T04 Rating: _____________________

Th 5:30pm – 8:30pm

EXPERIMENT 3
SPECIFIC GRAVITY TEST

I. OBJECTIVE

To determine the specific gravity of soil which is necessary in the

computation of soil ratio, degree of saturation, and grain size analysis.

II. EQUIPMENTS / MATERIALS

Distilled Water
Oven Dry Soil
Pycnometer Bottles
Thermometer
Oven
Balance

III. PROCEDURES

A. Bottle Calibration
1. Weigh the pycnometer bottle.

2. In a pycnometer, add distilled water at room temperature up to the

meniscus of the calibration mark of the bottle.
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 3. Dry the outside of the bottle and up to the neck of the inside part.

4. Weight the bottle plus water.

5. Measure the room temperature.

6. Place the thumb over the open end of the bottle and turn it upside
down and back to mix the water, then take the temperature.

7. Heat the bottle by placing it in a warm water bath. Repeat steps 2 to 6

each time removing enough water to bring the meniscus down to the
calibration mark.

8. Plot the calibration curve.

B. Specific Gravity Determination

a. Cohesionless Soil
1. Put 50 / 30 grams of oven dry soil passing through no. 10 sieve into a
calibrated pycnometer which is already half full of distilled water.

2. Remove all of the air which is entrapped in the soil by continuous

agitation for 10 minutes.

3. Add water to bring the bottom of the meniscus to the calibration

curve.

4. Dry the bottle both the outside and inside portions.

5. Weigh the bottle with the soil and water in it.

6. Record the temperature of the bottle.

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 b. Cohesive Soil
1. Make a sample of the soil to be tested into a smooth paste by mixing
it with distilled water. The sample should be approximately 50 grams
passing through No. 10 sieve in dry weight.

2. Pour the paste into the pycnometer.

3. Follow steps 2-7 in procedure a.

4. Pour the entire mixture in a large evaporating dish of known weight;

rinse the pycnometer to ensure collection of all the soil.

5. Dry the soil, soil it and determine its dry weight.

IV. DATA AND TABULATION:

A. Bottle Calibration

Trial T (°C) ρw
1 43 0.985
2 47 0.983
3 49 0.982
4 53 0.979

B. Specific Gravity Determination

Determination No.
Wt. of Flask + Water + Soil, W1 158.80 g
Temperature, Tx 34 °C
Wt. of Flask + Water 128.80 g
Wt. of Dry Soil, Ws 30 g
ρ of Water at Tx 0.9903
Specific Gravity of Soil 1.640

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V. COMPUTATIONS
A. Bottle Calibration
Mass of Flask (mf) = 47.92 g
Volume of Water (Vw) = 100 mL
mn = mass of flask + water in n°C

𝑚𝑛 − 𝑚𝑓
𝜌𝑤@𝑛 =
𝑉𝑤

146.42−47.92 𝑔
TRIAL 1: 𝜌𝑤@43℃ = = 0.985
100 𝑚𝐿

146.26−47.92 𝑔
TRIAL 2: 𝜌𝑤@47℃ = = 0.983
100 𝑚𝐿

146.08−47.92 𝑔
TRIAL 3: 𝜌𝑤@49℃ = = 0.982
100 𝑚𝐿

145.83−47.92 𝑔
TRIAL 4: 𝜌𝑤@53℃ = = 0.979
100 𝑚𝐿

B. Specific Gravity Determination

𝑊𝑠
𝐺𝑠 ′ =
𝑊𝑠 − 𝑊1 + 𝑊2
𝑔
𝑊2 = (0.9903 ) (100 𝑚𝐿) + 47.92 𝑔 = 146.95 𝑔
𝑚𝐿
30
𝐺𝑠′ = = 1.653
30 − 158.80 + 146.95
𝐺𝑠 = 𝑘𝐺𝑠′
𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝜌𝑤 @ 𝑇𝑥 0.9903
𝑘= = = 0.9921
𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝜌𝑤 @ 20℃ 0.9982

𝐺𝑠 = (0.9921)(1.653) = 𝟏. 𝟔𝟒𝟎

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VI. FIGURE

Figure 1. Materials and Equipment needed in performing the Figure 2. Measuring the weight of the calibrated Pycnometer
experiment are shown. with Distilled Water.

Figure 3. Temperature of the calibrated Pycnometer with Figure 4. Calibrating the Pycnometer with Water and Soil
Distilled Water is being recorded. and determining its needed data.

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 Density VS Temperature
1
0.999
0.998
0.997
0.996
0.995
0.994
0.993
0.992
0.991
Density g/mL

0.99
0.989
0.988
0.987
0.986
0.985
0.984
0.983
0.982
0.981
0.98
0.979
0.978
0.977
0.976
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
Temperature °C

Figure 5. Distilled Water’s Density-Temperature Calibration Curve

V. ANALYSIS and INTERPRETATION

Specific Gravity is defined as the ratio of the density of a given material to

the density of water. The specific gravity of soil solids is often needed for various
computations in soil mechanics such as soil ratio, degree of saturation, and grain
size analysis.

The density is an elementary physical property of matter. For a

homogeneous object it is defined as the ratio of its mass to its volume. There are
several experimental methods used for density determination of liquids which
leads to the determination of their specific gravity. One of these methods is the
density determination by Pycnometer.

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 The Pycnometer, also called as specific gravity bottle, is a flask with a
close-fitting ground glass with a capillary hole through it, so that a given volume
can be accurately obtained. This enables the density of a fluid to be measured
accurately, by reference to an appropriate working fluid, such as water, using an
analytical balance. The particle density of a soil solid, to which the usual method
of weighing cannot be applied, can also be determined with a pycnometer.

In determining the density of the distilled water sample at different

temperatures, the pycnometer that also contains water at its calibration level is
heated in an oven. With the increase in the temperature, the volume of the water
increases because of its volumetric thermal expansion. The volume of water will
then be decreased to maintain a 100 mL/cc volume and is weighed to determine
its new mass. With the new mass and a constant 100 mL/cc volume, different
density can be recorded at varying temperatures. This is then plotted to form a
linear line as shown in Figure 5. This line will be used to determine the
temperature coefficient (k) of the Distilled Water that is needed in computing the
required Specific Gravity (Gs) of the soil sample at room temperature (20°C) by
multiplying the Specific Gravity (Gs’) recorded during the experiment.

The Specific Gravity (Gs’) during the experiment is found to be the ratio of
the mass of the soil sample and the mass of an equal volume of water. Hence the
Specific Gravity Gs’ of a soil is calculated as follows;
𝑊𝑠
𝐺𝑠 ′ =
𝑊𝑠 − 𝑊1 + 𝑊2

Where Ws is the weight of the dry soil, W1 is the weight of the flask filled
with soil and water and W2 is the weight of the flask filled with de-aired water
only.

From the data that was gathered during the experiment, it is observed
that the temperature and density are directly proportional to each other and
depending on the temperature of the liquid, there will also be a change in its
density due to the volumetric thermal expansion that it experiences.

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 The specific gravity of the soil sample during the experiment (Gs’) is 1.653
at a temperature of 34°C. And at the standard temperature, its specific gravity
(Gs) has a value of 1.640. According to the Table below, it is specified that the soil
sample used in the experiment is classified as an organic soil. This matches the
properties of the soil as it is being sold as a garden soil.

In conclusion, the garden soil used in the experiment is specified as an

Organic Soil which has a specific gravity of 1.640 that is necessary in the
computation of soil ratio, degree of saturation, grain size analysis and other
weight-volume relationships. Furthermore, specific gravity of soil solids refers
only to the solid phase of the three-phase soil system, it does not include the
water and air phases present in the void space.