ATTERBERG LIMITS AND PLASTICITY BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

Atterberg limits, named after the Swedish soil scientist A. Atterberg, are water content values at which notable changes in soil behavior occur. The liquid limit , denoted LL or wL, marks the transition between liquid and plastic behavior.

At water contents above the liquid limit the soil behaves as a viscous liquid; below the liquid limit the soil behaves as a plastic solid. The liquid limit is determined in the laboratory by partly filling a standard brass cup with wet soil and cutting a groove of a standard dimension in the soil.

The liquid limit is taken as the water content at which the groove closes a specified amount when the cup is lifted and dropped 1 cm exactly 25 times. The details of the test are given in AASHTO T 89 and ASTM D 4318-93.

The plastic limit, denoted PL or wp, is the transition between plastic and brittle behavior. It is determined in the laboratory as the water content at which a 1/8-inch diameter thread of soil begins to crumble when rolled under the palm of the hand.

Details of the liquid limit and plastic limit tests are provided by AASHTO T 90 and ASTM D 4318-93. The shrinkage limit, denoted SL or wS, is the water content below which the soil no longer reduces in volume when the water content is reduced.

Although Atterberg limits are water contents and are properly decimals or percentages, they are usually expressed as an integer percentage without a percent sign. Thus, a liquid limit of 40% is usually reported as LL = 40.

The plasticity index, denoted PI or IP, is the difference of the liquid limit and the plastic limit:

PI = LL – PL

The liquidity index, denoted LI or IL , is a measure of the natural water content (w) relative to the plastic limit and the liquid limit:

LI = Il = (W-pl)/ (LL-PL)

SOIL GRAIN SIZE CHARACTERISTICS BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

Large-grained materials such as cobbles and boulders are sometimes considered to be soil. The differentiation of cobbles and boulders depends somewhat on local practice, but boulders are generally taken to be particles larger than 200 to 300 mm or 9 to 12 in.

The Unified Soil Classification System suggests that boulders be defined as particles that will not pass a 12-in. (300 mm) opening. Cobbles are smaller than boulders and range down to particles that are retained on a 3-inch (75 mm) sieve.

Gravels and sands are classified as coarse-grained soils; silts and clays are fine-grained soils. For engineering purposes, gravel is defined as soil that passes a 3-inch (75 mm) sieve and is retained by a No. 4 sieve (4.75 mm or 0.187 in.) or No. 10 sieve (2.00 mm or 0.078 in.), depending on the classification system.

Sand is defined as soil particles smaller than gravel but retained on a No. 200 sieve (0.075 mm or about 0.003 in.). Soils passing the No. 200 sieve may be silt or clay. Although grain-size criteria were used in some older classification systems to differentiate silt from clay, the two systems described herein make this differentiation based on plasticity rather than grain size.

The grain-size characteristics of soils that are predominantly coarse grained are evaluated by a sieve analysis. A nest of sieves is prepared by stacking sieves one above the other with the largest opening at the top followed by sieves of successively smaller openings and a catch pan at the bottom.

Opening sizes of commonly used sieves are shown in Table 15.1.

A sample of dry soil is poured onto the top sieve, the nest is covered, and it is then shaken by hand or mechanical shaker until each particle has dropped to a sieve with openings too small to pass, and the particle is retained.

The cumulative weight of all material larger than each sieve size is determined and divided by the total sample weight to obtain the percent retained for that sieve size, and this value is subtracted from 100% to obtain the percent passing that sieve size.

Results are displayed by plotting the percent passing (on a linear scale) against the sieve opening size (on a log scale) and connecting the plotted points with a smooth curve referred to as a grain-size distribution curve.