SOIL MECHANICS AND FOUNDATION ENGINEERING

Tutorial 3: Plasticity Characteristics of soil

1. Liquid limit tests on a given sample of clay were carried out. The data obtained are as given below

2. Draw the flow curve on semi-log paper and determine the liquid limit and flow index of the soil.
{ Ans: wl =50%, If= 29% }

3. The laboratory tests on a sample of soil gave the following results: wn - 24%, w, = 62%, wp = 28%,
percentage of particles less than 2 JJL - 23%
Determine: (a) The liquidity index, (b) activity (c) consistency and nature of soil.

4. Two soil samples tested in a soil mechanics laboratory gave the following results:

(a) Determine the toughness indices and

(b) comment on the types of soils.

5. A soil with a liquidity index of-0.20 has a liquid limit of 56% and a plasticity index of 20%.
What
is its natural water content? What is the nature of this soil? { ans :

6. A shrinkage limit test on a clay soil gave the following data. Compute the shrinkage limit.
Assuming that the total volume of dry soil cake is equal to its total volume at the shrinkage limit,
what is the degree of shrinkage? Comment on the nature of soil
Mass of shrinkage dish and saturated soil M, = 38.78 g
Mass of shrinkage dish and oven dry soil M2 = 30.46 g
Mass of shrinkage dish M3 = 10.65 g
Volume of shrinkage dish Vo - 16.29 cm3
Total volume of oven dry soil cake Vd - 10.00 cm3

7. Followinga re the resultso f a shrinkageli mit test:

o Initial volumeo f soil in a saturateds tate: 24.6c m3
o Final volume of soil in a dry state * 15.9 cm3
. Initial massi n a saturateds tate: 44 g
. Final mass in a dry state : 30.1 g
Determinet he shrinkagel imit of the soil. { ans : 17.28%}

8. For a given sandy soil, the maximum and minimum dry unit weights are 108Ib/fC
andg2lb/ftr, respectivelyG. iven that G. :2.65, determine the moist unit weight of this soil
when the relative density is 60% and the moisture
content is 8%. 3,22 A loose, uncompacted sand fill 2 m in depth has a relative density of 40"/".
Laboratory tests indicated that thc minimum and maximum void ratios of the sancla re 0.46a nd 0.90,r
espectivelyT. he specificg ravity of solidso f the sand is 2.65.
a. What is the dry unit weight of thc sand?
b. If the sand is compacted to a relative density of 157", what is the decrease
in thickness of the 2 m flll?
9. The max and min void ratio of sand are 0.805 and 0.501 respectively .the field density tests performed on
the soil has given the following results :

Bulk density =1.81 Mg/m3, w= 12.7% , assume Gs =2.65