DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY – DASMARIÑAS

Dasmariñas, Cavite
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Name: MOSTOLES, Glenn N. __ Date Performed: April 25, 2019

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

Th 5:30pm – 8:30pm

EXPERIMENT 5
DETERMINATION OF LIQUID LIMIT,
PLASTIC LIMIT AND PLASTICITY INDEX

I. OBJECTIVE
To determine some of the purpose of Atterberg Limits of a soil sample
finding the index properties of the sample

II. INSTRUMENTS / MATERIALS NEEDED

 Liquid limit set  Spatula
o Liquid Limit Device  Dry cans
o Groving tool  Oven
o Mixing dish  Balance
 Plastic limit set  Distilled Water
o Glass plate

III. PROCEDURES: All samples to be used should have passed the No. 40 sieve.

A. Liquid limit determination

1. Place the sample on a mixing dish and add to it 15 – 20 ml of distilled water,

then stir the sample, knead and chop with a spatula. An additional (1-3 ml)
water is added and the same procedure is undertaken.

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2. Place the sample on the liquid limit device to a depth of 10 mm at the point
of maximum thickness. Make a groove at the middle of the sample with
the use of a grooving tool, allowing a maximum of 6 strokes for it.

3. Turn the crank at a rate of two revolutions / second until the two sides of
the sample come in contact along a distance of ½ inch. Record the number
of revolutions and take a sample for water content determination. A
maximum of 10 revolution must be made before a sample comes in
contact by ½ inch.

4. Repeat the same operation for samples with more than 25 revolutions.
This is done by adding soil to the sample.

5. Plot the flow curve and determine the liquid limit.

B. Plastic Limit Determination

1. Place an air fried sample in a mixing dish and thoroughly mix with distilled
water until the mass becomes plastic enough to be easily shaped into a
ball. Take a portion of sample (8 grams) and use it for the test.

2. Form sample into an ellipsoidal shape mass. Roll this mass between fingers
in a piece of glass. The pressure should be sufficient to roll the mass into a
thread of uniform diameter through its length. The rate of rolling shall be
between 80 – 90 strokes per minute.

3. When the diameter of the thread becomes 3.2mm (1/8 inch), break the
thread into 8 pieces and squeeze it between the thumbs and fingers of
both hands into a uniform mass roughly ellipsoidal in shape and reroll it.
Continue this alternate rolling to a thread 3.2 mm (1/8 inch) in diameter,
gathering together, kneading and rerolling until the thread crumbles
under the pressure required for rolling and soil can no longer be rerolled
into a thread.

4. Determine the water content of the sample.

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 CALCULATION

1. The liquid is expressed as the moisture content in percentage of the

oven-dry weight corresponding to 25 blows.

Water Content = W1 – W2 X 100

W2
W1 = weight if wet sample
W2 = weight of oven-dry sample
Plot the percent moisture as ordinate on an arithmetic scale
against the number of blows as abscissa on the logarithmic scale.
Draw a straight line connecting these points. This is called the flow
curve.

2. The plastic limit is expressed as the moisture content in percentage of

the oven-dried weight of the crumbed soil thread.

Plastic Limit = (Wa - Wb) x 100

Wb
Wa = weight of crumbled soil thread
Wb = weight of oven-dried weight of the crumbed soil thread

IV. TABULATION

TABLE 1. Liquid Limit

Run No. 1 2 3 4
Weight of wet soil + container 32 g 36 g 45 g 40 g
Weight of dry soil + container 25 g 32 g 41 g 36 g
Weight of water Ww 7g 4g 4g 4g
Weight of container 8g 19 g 23 g 16 g
Weight of dry soil Ws 17 g 13 g 18 g 20 g
Water content N = (Ww x 100)/Ws 0.412 0.308 0.222 0.2
No. of blows 13 19 22 30
Liquid Limit = 22.60

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 TABLE 2. Plastic Limit (Natural Water Content)

Run No. 1 2 3
Weight of wet soil + container 19 g 22 g 10 g
Weight of dry soil + container 18 g 21 g 9g
Weight of water Ww 1g 1g 1g
Weight of container 10 g 19 g 8g
Weight of dry soil Ws 2g 2g 1g
Water content 0.5 0.5 1.0
Plastic Limit Average 50 50 100
Plastic Limit = 66.667

Plasticity Index = 0

V. COMPUTATION

LIQUID LIMIT
𝑊𝑤
Water Content 𝑤=
𝑊𝑠
7𝑔
Trial 1 𝑤= = 0.412
17𝑔
4𝑔
Trial 2 𝑤= = 0.308
13𝑔
4𝑔
Trial 3 𝑤= = 0.222
18𝑔
4𝑔
Trial 4 𝑤= = 0.200
20 𝑔

PLASTIC LIMIT
𝑊𝑤
Water Content 𝑤=
𝑊𝑠
1𝑔
Trial 1 𝑤= = 0.500
2𝑔
1𝑔
Trial 2 𝑤= = 0.500
2𝑔
1𝑔
Trial 3 𝑤= = 1.000
1𝑔

𝑊𝑎 −𝑊𝑏
Plastic Limit Average 𝑃𝐿 = 𝑥 100
𝑊𝑏
3 −2
Trial 1 𝑃𝐿 = 𝑥 100 = 50
2

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 3 −2
Trial 2 𝑃𝐿 = 𝑥 100 = 50
2
2 −1
Trial 3 𝑃𝐿 = 𝑥 100 = 100
1
50+50+100
Plastic Limit 𝑃𝐿 = = 66.667
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PLASTICITY INDEX
𝑃𝐼 = 𝐿𝐿 − 𝑃𝐿 = 22.60 − 66.667 = −43.167 = 0

VI. FIGURE

Figure 1. Equipment and Materials used during the Experiment

Figure 2. Making the groove at the middle Figure 3. Forming the soil sample into ellipsoidal shaped
of the Liquid Limit Device mass for the determination of Plastic Limit

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 Figure 4. Soil obtained from the ellipsoidal mass(left) and from the liquid limit device (right).

Figure 5. Schematic Diagram of the

Liquid Limit Test Apparatus Figure 6. Soil Pat before and after Test

Figure 7. Flow Curve for Liquid Limit Determination

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 Figure 8. Plasticity Chart

VII. ANALYSIS and INTERPRETATION

When clay minerals are present in fine-grained soil, the soil can be
remolded in the presence of some moisture without crumbling. This cohesive
nature is caused by the adsorbed water surrounding the clay particles. Atterberg
Limits were developed to describe the consistency of fine-grained soils with
varying moisture contents. At a very low moisture content, soil behaves more like
a solid. When the moisture content is very high, the soil and water may flow like a
liquid. Therefore, on an arbitrary basis depending on the moisture content, the
behavior of soil can be divided into four basic states namely, solid, semisolid,
plastic, and liquid.

The moisture content at which the transition from solid to semisolid state
takes place is defined as the shrinkage limit. The moisture content at the point of

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transition from semisolid to plastic state is the plastic limit, and from plastic to
liquid state is the liquid limit. These parameters are also known as Atterberg
limits.

The Atterberg limits are commonly used to distinguish between silts and
clays, and types of silts and clays. They are used widely with other soil properties
to correlate with engineering behavior such as compressibility, permeability,
shrink swell, shear strength, and compaction.

In determining the Liquid Limit of a soil, a device that consists of a brass cup and a
hard rubber base is used as shown in Figure 5. The brass cup can be dropped onto
the base by a cam operated by a crank. To perform the liquid limit test, one must
place a soil paste in the cup. A groove is then cut at the center of the soil pat with
the standard grooving tool as shown in Figure 2.

By the use of the crank-operated cam, the cup is lifted and dropped. The
moisture content required to close a distance of 12.5 mm or 0.5 inch along the
bottom of the groove after 25 blows is defined as the liquid limit.

The moisture content of the soil and the corresponding number of blows
are plotted on semilogarithmic graph paper as shown in Figure 4.7. The
relationship between moisture content and number of blows is approximated as a
straight line. This line is referred to as the flow curve and the moisture content
corresponding to 25 number of blows, gives the liquid limit of the soil.

In nature, liquid limit describes the change of state of a clayey soil from
plastic to liquid and is used to classify fine grained soil. It also gives information
regarding the state of consistency of soil on site. It can also be used to predict the
consolidation properties of soil while calculating allowable bearing capacity and
settlement of foundation. In addition, liquid limit value of soil is also used to
calculate activity of clays and toughness index of soil.

The Plastic Limit is determined by rolling out a thread of the fine portion of
a soil on a flat, non-porous surface as seen in Figure 3. If the soil is at moisture
content where its behavior is plastic, this thread will retain its shape down to a
very narrow diameter. As the moisture content falls due to evaporation, the

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thread will begin to break apart at larger diameters. The plastic limit is defined as
the moisture content where the thread breaks apart at a diameter of 3.2 mm. A
soil is considered non-plastic if a thread cannot be rolled out down to 3.2 mm at
any moisture. The plastic limit is the lower limit of the plastic stage of soil. Thus, a
small increase in moisture above the plastic limit destroys cohesion of the soil.

Plasticity index is an important parameter that can be used to classify soil.

Soils that have high plasticity index are considered to tend to clay. If this value is
in lower range the soil tend to silt. In case of zero value, soil are considered to
have little or no clay and silt and called non-plastic soil. A low plasticity index is
indicative to have high organic matter in soil. Soil plasticity is also a field indicator
of slope stability. The engineering concept of soil plasticity has evolved to explain
why some soils are more failure prone than others.

The plasticity index (PI) is the difference between the liquid limit and the
plastic limit of a soil, or PI = LL – PL.

Using the Atterberg Limits of the soil sample found in Table 1 and 2, it can
be seen in the Plasticity Chart in Figure 8 that the soil used having a Liquid Limit of
22.60, Plastic Limit of 66.667 and Plasticity Index of 0, is classified under Inorganic
Silts of low compressibility.
REFERENCES:

Jajurie, N. (2016). Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit, and Plasticity

Index of Soils. Retrived from: academia.edu on May 5, 2019.

Das, B. & Sobhan, K. (2013). Principles of Geotechnical

Engineering, 8e. Cengage Learning. Stamford, CT, USA.