Lab Report

1|Page

Contents
Introduction: ................................................................................................................................................. 2

Purpose of experiment: ........................................................................................................................ 2

Background Information: ...................................................................................................................... 2

Materials and Methods:................................................................................................................................ 3

Equipment Used:................................................................................................................................... 3

Procedure:............................................................................................................................................. 3

Results: .......................................................................................................................................................... 4

Discussion: .................................................................................................................................................... 6

References: ................................................................................................................................................... 7
2|Page

Introduction:

Purpose of experiment:

1. Used to classify soil

2. Sieve analysis is an important technique to estimate the various engineering properties such as:

 Permeability

 Shear Strength

 Expansivity and compressibility

3. The basic purpose of sieve analysis is to determine the percentage of different grain sizes

contained within a soil.

4. The percentage distribution of soil particles determines soil structure.

5. It is helpful for knowing the structure of soil, since the structure of soil determines its suitability

for concrete, road subsurface, building foundation, or filter media.

Background Information:

A sieve analysis is a technique used to assess the particle size distribution of a granular material by

enabling the material to go through a set of sieves of dynamically smaller mesh size and weighing the

amount of material that is retained by each sieve as a fraction of the entire mass.

Sieve analysis technique is used to determine the distribution of the coarser, larger-sized particles.

For grains larger than 0.075mm sieving is used.

A sieve analysis can be performed on any type of non-organic or organic grander materials including

sands, crushed rock, clays, granite, feldspar, coal and soil, a wide range to manufactured powders, grain

and seeds, down to a minimum size depending on the exact method.

The sieve analysis is commonly known as gradation test is a basic essential test for all aggregate

technicians. The sieve analysis determines the gradation in order to determine compliance with design,

production control requirements and verification specifications. In this test a gradation curve is drawn

which is helpful for knowing the various properties of soil.

Materials and Methods:

Equipment Used:

 Set of sieves

Use #4, #10, #20, #40, #60, #140, #200 sieves.

 Pan

 Mechanical sieve shaker

 Weighing balance with an accuracy to measure 0.1 percent of weight of test sample

 Soil sample including coarse and fine aggregates

Procedure:

1. Take 500 g oven dried soil sample.

2. Break the sample into individual particles.

3. Note down the weight of each sieve and also the pan used in sieve analysis.

4. Arrange the sieves in descending order from larger ones to smaller ones.

5. Pour the soil sample in the upper most sieve and place the sieve cover over it.

6. Run the stack of sieves by using sieve shaker for about 10 mins.

7. Stop the sieve shaker and remove the sieve cover, also remove the stack of sieve.
4|Page

8. Then weight out the soil retained on each sieve.

9. Apply the formula and calculate the Percentage passing through each sieve.

Results:

Weight of soil taken = M = 500g

Table 1: gradation of soil particles

Percent of

Mass of Mass of soil mass Comulative

Sieve Sieve Mass of sieves and retained on retained on percentage Percent

no. opening sieves soil retained each sieve each sieve retained finer

100-

# mm g g g Rn ΣRn ΣRn

4 4.75 501.4 759.37 257.97 51.594 51.594 48.406

10 2 416.73 479.5 62.77 12.554 64.148 35.852

20 0.85 389.36 435.42 46.06 9.212 73.36 26.64

40 0.425 383.32 390.45 7.13 1.426 74.786 25.214

60 0.25 323.24 350.93 27.69 5.538 80.324 19.676

140 0.105 321.02 338.7 17.68 3.536 83.86 16.14

200 0.075 300 309.69 9.69 1.938 85.798 14.202

Pan 286.46 312.32 25.86 5.172 90.97 9.03

M1 = 454.85g

𝑀−𝑀1
Mass loss during sieve analysis = 𝑀
× 100
5|Page

500−454.85
= × 100
500

= 9.03% (Not ok)

Percent gravel 51.6

Percent coarse sand 12.6

Percent medium sand 10.638

Percent fine sand 11.012

Percent of silt/clay 5.172

Graph 1: grain size distribution graph

#4 Coarse #10 Medium #40 Fine #200 SILT/CLAY

90

80

70
% Finer

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
10.000 1.000 0.100 0.010
Particle size (mm)
6|Page

Calculation of Cu and Cc:

D60 = 8.79

D30 = 1.23

D10 = 0.061

Cu = D60/ D10b = 144

Cc = D302/ (D60 * D10) = 2.82

Discussion:

It can be evident that sieves can be used to separate both fine and coarse aggregate into different soil

particles. We concluded that sieve analysis is an easy and simple way for soil classification.

Percentage of gravel in our sample is greater than 50%, from this we concluded that soil used in our

sample is coarse grained soil.

By using USCS chart we classify the soil as:

Gravel > 50%

Percent fine < 12%

Thus, the soil used is well graded gravel.

It can also be evident from the value of Cu and Cc.

Mass of loss during sieve analysis is > 2%. According to this criterion our results are not accurate, since

we lost almost 10% of soil weight during sieving and shaking.

Cu >>1 ---->grain size spans a large range, indicator of being well graded
7|Page

1<Cc<3 ----> Smooth curve (well graded)

Moreover, grading curve for coarse aggregate is:

Gradation curve for our soil sample is also resembles with above gradation curve. Thus, the soil sample

used is well graded coarse gravel.

References:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Grading-curve-of-coarse-aggregate_fig5_275557074

https://www.slideshare.net/SarchiaKhursheed/sieve-analysis-of-coarse-and-fine-aggregate-report

http://www.basiccivilengineering.com/2017/06/sieve-analysis-test.html