Experiment No.

6
CONSISTENCY LIMITS OF THE SOIL

1. Objective(s):
The activity aims to impart how the moisture content influences the behavior of fine-grained soils.
2. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs):
The students shall be able to:
 understand the concept of Atterberg limits and how it influences the behavior of the soil.
 determine the liquid limit, plastic limit and shrinkage limit of the given soil sample.
 describe the relationship of liquid limit and plastic limit in soil identification.

3. Discussion:
The liquid limit and plastic limit are used internationally for soil identification, soil classification and for
strength co-relation. It is also helpful in determining consolidation and settlement of soil. The liquid limit is
arbitrarily defined as the moisture content at which a soil pat placed in a brass cup cut with a standard
groove and dropped from a height of 1cm will undergo a groove closure of 12.7mm after 25 drops.

Plastic limit is the moisture content at which soil threads start to crumble when rolled to 3mm diameter
threads. The difference of the plastic limit and liquid limit is the plasticity index. This is the range of water
content wherein the soil will act like a plastic.

The shrinkage limit is the moisture content wherein the volume of the soil will cease to reduce in relation to
reduction of moisture content. Shrinkage limit is important in earthworks for predicting the shrinkage and
swelling potential of soil.

4. Resources:

1. Liquid limit device with groove tool

2. Tin can
3. spatula
4. Triple beam balance
5. Soil oven, pan
6. Shrinkage dish
7. Paraffin wax with sewing thread
8. Spring balance

5. Procedure:

Liquid Limit Test

1. Prepare at least 250g of representative air dry soil sample passing the no. 40 sieve. Pulverize this
soil sample. Be sure to break all lumps to elemental particles.
2. Prepare at least 3 moisture tin cans. Mix the prepared sample with a small amount of water. Mix
the sample of soil thoroughly until it becomes uniform and consistent in appearance (no lumps). A
major source of error is poor mixing.
3. On the liquid limit device cup, place an amount of sol. Smooth the pat surface. Using the grooving
tool, cut a groove at the middle.
 4. Fasten the brass cup to the hinge of the liquid limit device.
5. Using the 1cm. block at the end of the grooving tool, adjust the height of the fall to exactly 1
centimeter. Height of fall is very critical and as little as 0.1cm can affect the liquid limit by several
percent.
6. Prepare 3 different consistencies of soil based on the number of blows in the liquid limit device:
25-35, 20-30 and 15-25 blows. This is done carefully by adding water to the soil.
7. Mix the soil sample until the consistency would require 25-35 blows to close the groove for about
12.5 mm. Take moisture content near the groove using 30g of soil to determine the moisture
content by placing in the oven. Keep the temperature at 105 oC.
8. Add additional water to test the remaining consistencies of soil. Repeat procedure 7.
9. Draw the flow curve wherein the data is recorded with the water content in the domain and the log
N in the abscissa. The water content that would require 25 blows to close the groove is the liquid
limit of the sample.

Plastic Limit Test

1. Take a sample of about 100 grams..
2. Start rolling the soil between the finger and the glass plate with adequate pressure to form a soil
thread approximately 3mm with 80-90 strokes per minute. When the diameter of the threads of
soil becomes 3mm, break the threads in smaller pieces, reform into a ball and re-roll. Continue
this re-balling and re-rolling until threads crumble under pressure and soil can no longer be rolled
into threads.
3. When the threads crumbles at a diameter greater than 3mm this is satisfactory to define the
plastic limit.
4. Place the crumbled soil in a tin can until a weight of about 30grams is achieved. Do this until two
(2) samples are achieved. Place it in an oven to oven dry. Maintain the temperature at 105 oC.
5. After determining the moisture content, determine its average. The result is the plastic limit of the
soil.

Shinkage Limit Test

1. Weigh the shrinkage dish (W sd). Fill the shrinkage dish with water and weigh again (W sd+water).
Determine the volume (V) by getting the difference of W sd+water and Wsd and divide it by the unit
weight of water.
V = (Wsd+water - Wsd) / w

2. Grease the inside surface of the shrinkage dish. Place a small portion of the soil pat and carefully
tap the dish to allow the soil pat to flow at the edges. Repeat again until the whole shrinkage dish
is filled. Strike of the excess soil using a straight edge. Record the mass of the soil and dish.
3. Allow the soil to dry into the air until its color turns from dark to light. Oven dry the sample to the
oven kept at 105 oC. Record the mass of the soil and shrinkage dish. Determine the weight of the
dry soil (mdry). Determine its moisture content.
4. Securely tie the soil pat in a sewing thread. Immerse the soil in molten wax. Allow the wax coating
to cool. Determine the mass of the soil with wax (m dry+wax). Determine the mass of the wax (m wax).
Determine its volume by dividing the mass with the unit weight of the wax (V wax).

Vwax = (mdry+wax - mdry) / wax

 5. Using a spring balance, determine the mass of the soil and wax in air (m swa). Immerse the soil and
wax in water and determine its mass in water (m sww). Determine the volume of the wax and soil
using the formula:
Vsoil+wax = (mswa-msww)/w

6. Determine the dry volume of soil (Vd) by the difference of the Vsoil+wax and Vwax.
7. Calculate the shrinkage limit of the soil using the formula:

SL = w – (V-Vd)w/ms

Course: CE401 Experiment No.: 5

Group No.: 1 Section: CE41FB1-A2
Group Leader: Bantayan, Beatreze P. Date Performed: August 22,2018
Group Members: Date Submitted: August 29,2018
1. Aborita, Danielle Joyce Instructor: Engr. Jennifer L. Camino
2. Abraham, Joshua
3. Acopio, Danmark Joseph
4. Aleman, Gloremay Ann
5. Anduque, Sheena Paula

6. Data and Results:

Determination of the Liquid Limit

Description Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3
Range 15 – 25 20 – 30 25 – 35
No. of Blows 15 25 30
Wt of tin cup (Wc) 33 g 33 g 33 g
Wt. of tin cup + Wet Soil 81 g 92 g 81 g
(Wc+ws)
Wt. of tin cup and dry 70 g 78 g 70 g
soil (Wc+dc)
Wt. of water (Ww) 11 g 14 g 11 g
Wt. of dry soil (Wds) 37 g 45 g 37 g
Water Content () 29.73% 31.11% 29.73%
Liquid Limit 29.82%
 Flow Curve
35
34
33
32
Waer content

31
30
29
28
27
26
25
No. of blows

Flow Curve

Determination of the Plastic Limit

Description Sample 1 Sample 2
Wt of tin cup (Wc) 12g 12g
Wt. of tin cup + Wet Soil (Wc+ws) 30g 31g
Wt. of tin cup and dry soil (Wc+dc) 23g 25g
Wt. of water (Ww) 7g 6g
Wt. of dry soil (Wds) 11g 13g
Water Content () 63.63% 46.15%
Plastic Limit (Average) 38.89% 31.58%

Determination of the Shrinkage Limit

Description Data Description Data
 Volume of Volume of Wax
Shrinkage Dish
Weight of Shrinkage 15g Mass of dry soil and wax 16g
Dish (Wsd) (mdry+wax)
Weight of Shrinkage 88g Volume of wax (Vwax) 15.56 cc
Dish and Water
(Wsd+water)
Volume of Shrinkage 73 cc
Dish (V)
Volume of Soil
 Water Content mass of the soil and wax 17.773g
in air (mswa)
 Wt of tin cup (mc) 28g mass of soil and wax in 14g
water (msww)
Wt. of tin cup + Wet Soil 31g Volume of the wax and 3.773 cc
(mc+ws) soil (Vwax+soil)
Wt. of tin cup and dry 30g Volume of Soil (Vd) 11.787 cc
soil (mc+dc)
Wt. of water (mw) 1g
Wt. of dry soil (mdry) 2g Shrinkage Limit (SL) 46.17%
Water Content () 50%

7. Conclusion:

The students therefore conclude that this 5th experiment about Atterberg limits and consistency
index are an ideal mechanism for classifying cohesive or fine-grained soils in relation with compaction.
The above procedures also provide information for interpreting the soil mechanical and physical
properties such as shear strength, compressibility, shrinkage and swelling potentials.
The students also learned that as the soil loses moisture, it changes from a liquid state to a plastic
state. The volume is also reduced by the decrease in water content but at a particular limit, the moisture
reduction caused no further volume change. The volume of the soil does not decrease when the water
content is reduced below shrinkage limit.

8. Assessment (Rubric for Laboratory Performance):

 BEGINNER ACCEPTABLE PROFICIENT
CRITERIA SCORE
1 2 3

I. Laboratory Skills

Members do not Members occasionally

Manipulative Members always
demonstrate needed demonstrate needed
Skills demonstrate needed skills.
skills. skills

Members are able to Members are able to set-up

Experimental Members are unable to
set-up the materials with the material with minimum
Set-up set-up the materials.
supervision. supervision.

Members do not Members occasionally Members always

Process Skills demonstrate targeted demonstrate targeted demonstrate targeted
process skills. process skills. process skills.

Members follow safety

Safety Members do not follow Members follow safety
precautions most of the
Precautions safety precautions. precautions at all times.
time.

II. Work Habits

Time
Members do not finish Members finish ahead of
Management / Members finish on time
on time with incomplete time with complete data and
Conduct of with incomplete data.
data. time to revise data.
Experiment

Members do not know Members have defined

Members are on tasks and
their tasks and have no responsibilities most of
have defined responsibilities
Cooperative and defined responsibilities. the time. Group
at all times. Group conflicts
Teamwork Group conflicts have to conflicts are
are cooperatively managed
be settled by the cooperatively managed
at all times.
teacher. most of the time.

Clean and orderly

Messy workplace during workplace with Clean and orderly workplace
Neatness and
and after the occasional mess during at all times during and after
Orderliness
experiment. and after the the experiment.
experiment.

Members require Members require

Ability to do Members do not need to be
supervision by the occasional supervision
independent work supervised by the teacher.
teacher. by the teacher.
Other Comments/Observations: Total Score

(Total Score)
Rating= ×100
24

9. References
Murthy, V.N.S. (2011). Textbook of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering . Singapore: Alken
Company

American Society for Testing and Materials (2000). Standard Test Methods for Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit
and Plasticity Index of Soils (D-4318) . Pennsylvania: ASTM International

American Society for Testing and Materials (2002). Standard Test Methods for Shrinkage Factors of Soils
by the Wax Method (D-4943). Pennsylvania: ASTM International
Resources to be used
TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES
938 Aurora Boulevard, Cubao, Quezon City

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

Civil Engineering Department

CE 401
Soil Mechanics

(DESCRIPTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF SOILS)

PREPARED BY:
ABORITA, DANIELLE JOYCE
ABRAHAM, JOSHUA
ACOPIO, DANMARK JOSEPH
AGUINALDO, NIKKI
ALEMAN, GLOREMAY ANN
ANDUQUE, SHEENA PAULA

CE41FA1
SUBMITTED TO:
ENGR. JENNIFER CAMINO
August 2019
Group Photo