CHAPTER-2: FUNDAMENTALS OF SOIL

MECHANICS
Md Aftabur Rahman, Ph.D., M. ASCE
Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology
Chattogram-4349, Bangladesh
Email: [email protected]
 SOILS
• Soil is formed by the process of physical and chemical weathering
• The individual size of the constituents might range from the smallest state
(Colloidal) to the largest possible (Boulders)
• All the weathered constituents of a parent rock can’t be soil all the time
According to their grain size, soil may be cobbles, gravel,
sand, silt and clay
Gravel: range between 4.75mm and 80mm
Sand: range between 4.75mm and 0.075mm
Cohesionless soil
Inter granular contact force prevail
Silt and Clay: smaller than 0.075mm
Cohesive
For clay, purely cohesive
Loam: a combined mixture of sand, silt and clay
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 TYPES OF SOILS
Residual Soils
• Remain at the place of their formation as a result of the weathering of
parent rocks
• Size of the grains are indefinite
Transported Soils

• Found at locations far removed from their place of formation

• Transporting agencies are glaciers, wind and water
Alluvial soils are those that have been transported by running water
Marine soils are those deposited in sea water
Aeolin soils are those that transported and deposited by wind
Colluvial soils are those deposited primarily through the action of gravitational
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UNDERSTANDING THIS DIAGRAM IS HELPFUL! !

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 GRAIN SIZE ANALYSIS
1. Sieve Analysis
2. Hydrometer Analysis

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 SIEVE ANALYSIS

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 SIEVE ANALYSIS
Wt. of Cum %
Sieve No. Sieve Size Wt. of can Wt. retain % retain % Finer
can+sample retain
(mm) (gm) (gm) (gm) ----- ----- -----
No. 4 4.75 0 0 0 0 0 100
No. 8 2.38 0 0 0 0 0 100
No. 16 1.19 0 0 0 0 0 100

No. 30 0.6 0 0 0 0 0 100

No. 50 0.3 0 44.19 44.19 8.838 8.838 91.162

No. 100 0.15 0 276.03 276.03 55.206 64.044 35.956

No. 200 0.075 0 135.29 135.29 27.058 91.102 8.898

Pan ------ 0 44.49 44.49 8.898 100 0

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GRAPHICAL PRESENTATION OF SIEVE ANALYSIS

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 HYDROMETER ANALYSIS

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 HYDROMETER ANALYSIS

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 HYDROMETER ANALYSIS

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 COMBINED GRAIN SIZE ANALYSIS

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 COMBINED GRAIN SIZE ANALYSIS

Here, Mp is the mass of soil particles passing through the No. 200 sieve and M is
the total mass taken for the combined sieve and hydrometer analysis.
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 NATURE OF SOILS

D6
0
D5
0

D3 D1
0 0
In grain size distribution curve, several key grain sizes are utilized: D10, D30, D50,
D60, which are the grain sizes corresponding to 10%, 30%, 50% and 60% finer by
weight. D50 is called mean grain size and D10 is called as effective grain size.
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 NATURE OF SOILS

Coefficient of uniformity and coefficient of gradation affect the soil

packing arrangement
• Well graded soils make more stable packing since finer particles fill voids
made by larger assemblages
• Uniformly graded soils make rather ordinary arrangement of packing and thus
less interlocking mechanism
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 NATURE OF SOILS
1. Uniformly Graded / Poorly Graded
2. Well Graded

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 CONSISTENCY OF CLAY SOIL
• Consistency is used to indicate the degree of fineness of cohesive soils.
• Consistency of cohesive soils qualitatively expressed as very soft, soft, stiff, very
stiff, and hard.
• Physical properties of clay differ greatly with different water contents
A soil that is very soft at a high percentage of water becomes very hard with a
decrease in water content
Consistency is expressed in terms of
1. Atterberg limits
2. Unconfined compressive strength of soils

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 ATTERBERG LIMITS

Adsorbed water layer is considered as an integral part of clay particle. When clay particles contain
enough water, adsorbed water layers are not at all in contact with each other, and thus, there is no
frictional resistance. It is at a liquid stage (lean soup). Now, if water is removed to a certain level at
which all the adsorbed water layers are just in contact, frictional resistance will be developed at the
contact points. This is considered to be the stage of Liquid Limit. When it is further dried,
overlapping of adsorbed water layer will take place. The limiting stage of this overlapping is the level
at which all particles themselves touch each other and no further overlapping possible. This stage is
considered as the Shrinkage Limit (cheese). Plastic Limit may have some degree of overlapping of
adsorbed water layers (soft butter).

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 ATTERBERG LIMITS
Atterberg, A Swedish scientist, considered the consistency of soils in 1911, and
proposed a series of test for defining the properties of cohesive soils
Atterberg mentioned that a fine-grained soil can exist in four states, namely,
liquid, plastic, semi-solid or solid

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 ATTERBERG LIMITS

Liquid limit: The water content at which the soil changes from the liquid state to
plastic state is known as liquid limit
Plastic Limit: The water content at which the soil becomes semi-solid is known as
plastic limit
Shrinkage Limit: The water content at which the soil changes from semi-solid to
solid state is known as the shrinkage limit

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 ATTERBERG LIMITS

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 ATTERBERG LIMITS

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 ATTERBERG LIMITS
• Plasticity Index and Liquid Limit are the important factors that help an
engineer to understand the consistency or plasticity of a clay
• A highly plastic clay has higher shearing strength at the plastic limit
• Plasticity index indicates the degree of plasticity of a soil. Fat clays are highly
plastic and posses a high plasticity index.

Sometimes you may find some fine-grained soils that appear similar to
clays, but they can’t be rolled into thread so easily ?

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 TYPICAL ATTERBERG LIMITS

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 ENGINEERING CLASSIFICATION OF
SOILS

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 INTRODUCTION
• Soils are all different, depending on their origins, compositions, locations,
geological histories, and many other factor

Two soils may be quite different, even though they were obtained from
nearby bore holes on the same construction site

In-situ and laboratory tests on soil specimens are very important to obtain
their index and engineering properties.
Convenient for engineers if soils are categorized into several groups with
similar engineering behavior

The process of categorizing soils with similar engineering behavior is

known as soil classification

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 CLASSIFICATION MODES

1. TEXTURAL SYSTEM

2. AASHTO SYSTEM

3. USCS SYSTEM

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 TEXTURAL SYSTEM
By making use of the grain size limits mentioned above, for sand, silt and clay, a
triangular classification chart, has been developed for classifying mixed soils

Loam is used to describe the various

types of mixed soils

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 TEXTURAL SYSTEM
• To eliminate the ambiguous term LOAM , the Mississippi River Commission,
USA proposed a new system

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 USCS SYSTEM
The Unified Soil Classification System is based on the recognition of the type and
predominance of the constituents considering grain-size, gradation, plasticity and
compressibility

• Modified version of A. Casagrande’s Airfield Classification (AC) system

developed in 1942 for Corps of Engineers, USA. Later, in 1969, adopted
by ASTM and designated as ASTM D2487
Major Symbols Modifiers

G Gravel W Well graded (for gravel and sand)

S Sand P Poorly graded (for gravel and sand)
M Silt H High plastic (for silt, clay and organic soils)
C Clay L Low plastic (for silt, clay and organic soils)
O Organic
Pt Peat
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 USCS SYSTEM

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 USCS SYSTEM

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 USCS SYSTEM

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 USCS SYSTEM

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 AASHTO SYSTEM
• AASHTO soil classification was developed in the late 1920s by the US Bureau
of Public Road (now the Federal Highway Administration) for road
constructions
• The current version, which was revised in 1945, is used for extended
applications in road bases, sub-bases, subgrade, and embankment
constructions

✔ Uses Atterberg limits (LL and PL)

✔ Grain size distribution curve (% passing No. 10, No. 40, and No. 200 sieves)
✔ Elimination process

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 AASHTO SYSTEM

• If more than one column survived, the first column from left is selected as a group or
subgroup name
• In general, the left-side group is better than the right side one as roadway construction
materials
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 AASHTO SYSTEM
In addition, Group Index (GI), shall be calculated and reported in the AASHTO
System

However,
• When GI is calculated as negative values, report GI = 0
• GI is reported in rounded integer numbers. For example, GI = 4.4 shall be
reported as 4.0 and GI=4.5 shall be reported as 5.0
• For A-2-6 and A-2-7 subgroups, use only the second term of the above
equation, therefore the revised equation is

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 CLAY VERSUS SAND
Properties and Clay Sand
behavior
Particle size Small (< 0.005 or 0.002 Large (>0.075 mm)
mm)
Structure Clay structures Crystal formations
Shape Flat Angular to round
Surface charge Negative and sometimes Negligible
positive at edge
Specific charge Large Small
Interactive forces Strong Negligible
Plasticity Plastic Non plastic
Shear resistance By cohesion By friction
Volume change Large, time dependent Small, instantaneous

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 THANK YOU VERY MUCH

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