Course Name: Materials Technology (CIV 1101)

Name of course:
Title: Sieve analysis of fine and course aggregates
Aim: To determine the various sizes of particles in a sample of aggregate
Date submitted: 11th October, 2013
Date conducted: 27th November, 2013
Lab Report: NO. 5

Introduction
The following is a lab report based on determining the various sizes of particles in
a sample of aggregates. This process was done for course and fine aggregates
involving equal distribution through rifle box method and passing the aggregates
through two different sets of sieves with various sieve sizes corresponding to the
type of aggregates used and obtaining the values for the aggregate masses that had
been retained within each sieve.
A grading curve can then be obtained by finding the percent passing and plotting
them on the semi log curve, showing the distribution of the percentage of
aggregates passing against the sieve number was plotted.

Theoretical Information
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Grain size is needed for the classification of soils. The data obtained from plotting
curves can be used to design filters for earth dams and to determine suitable soils
for road construction and other building projects and also the grain size can
determine the water flow through various soil types and allowing proper allocation
of building sites.
Percent retained = (weight retained/total weight) X 100%
Percent passing = (previous percentage passing -percent retained)
% passing initial = 100% - % retained for each sieve)
D10, D30 and D60 can be obtained from tracing the 10%, 30% and 60% passing
respectively to the curve and reading the horizontal axis to obtain the value for
each.
Fineness modulus ={ (number of sieves used X 100) sum of % passing )}/100

Materials
Aggregates- course and fine

Equipment
Sieve
1. For course: sieve no. - 7, 10, 14, 25, 35, 50, 70, 100, and pan
2. For fines: sieve size- , , ,,, and pan
Rifle Box
Top loading electronic balance
Maximum capacity: - 15kg 30kg
Minimum capacity: - 100g
Absolute uncertainty: - Au. 0.001kg

Experimental Procedure
1. The sample was passed through the rifle box in order to distribute the
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

particles easily.
A sample of 5200g of course aggregates was weighed.
The sieves were obtained and placed in descending order.
The sample was placed in the top sieve and covered.
The sample was shaken for 3 minutes.
The sample remaining in each of the sieves and the pan was weighed and

recorded.
7. This procedure was again followed for the fine aggregates using 2000 g.
8. A grading curve of the results was plotted.

Experimental results
SEIVE NUMBER

WEIGHT RETAINED (kg)

0.01

10

0.015

14

0.04

25

0.225

35

0.258

50

0.84

70

0.315

100

0.7

PAN

0.175

TOTAL

1.948

Table 1- For Course Aggregates- TOTAL WEIGHT- 2000g

Sieve Size

Pan
Total

Weight Retained (kg)

0.285
2.14
1.515
0.99
0.145
0.04
0.025
5.113

Table 2- For fine aggregates- TOTAL WIEGHT- 5200g

Analysis
SEIVE

WEIGHT

Percent

Percent

CUMULATIVE

NUMBER

RETAINED

Retained

Passing

(kg)

(%)

(%)

7
10
14
25
35
50
70
100
PAN
TOTAL

0.01
0.015
0.04
0.225
0.258
0.84
0.315
0.7
0.175
1.948

0.5
0.7
2.1
11.6
13.2
43.1
16.2
3.6
9.0
100.0

99.5
98.8
96.7
85.1
71.9
28.8
12.6
9.0
0

0.5
1.2
3.3
14.9
28.1
71.2
87.4
91.0
100.0
100.0

Table 3: shows the percent retained and the percent passing each sieve in the
course aggregate analysis
Percent Loss= 0.052/2 X 100%= 2.6%
Fineness modulus = 2.982

Sieve Size

Weight Retained

Percent Retained

Percent Passing

(kg)
0.285
2.14
1.515
0.99

(%)
16.147
49.095
7.243
9.206

(%)
82.394
33.299
26.056
16.850

pan
Total

0.145
0.04
0.025
5.113

3.219
1.911
11.720
100.000

13.631
11.720
0
100.0

Table 4: shows the percent retained and the percent passing each sieve in the fine
aggregate analysis
Percent Loss= 1.6/5.2 X 100%= 1.7
Fineness modulus = 4.1
The grading curve was plotted using the calculations made for the percentage
retained in both tables 4 and 5 against the sieve number.

Discussion
The course and fine curves have varying uniformity. The fine aggregates curve
shows a gradual climb imp percent indicating a fairly even distribution of
aggregate sizes while the course aggregate curve show an indent within its
climbing indicating that there was no even distribution and having a larger number
of aggregates retained in number 50 sieve. The values for sieves plotted on the
course aggregate and fine aggregate log graphs were used to find D10 , D30 and D
60 and these values were 0.023 ,0.017 and 0.006 respectively for fine aggregates
and 0.61, 0.42 and 0.13 respectively for course aggregates .., using these values a
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number of use arise . The D10 value indicates Effective size (E.S). This along with
the uniformity coefficient (UC), found by dividing D60 by D10 and can provide
information for usage for the filtration sand in the bio filter or can indicate certain
samples for areas with a specific aggregate size and this was 4.6 for course and 3.8
for fine aggregate . D10, D30, and D60 were found by using the percent passing
and using a horizontal to pinpoint the value of each. Depending on the distance
between two points and the slope of the curve the distribution of aggregate sizes
and decisions on if filtering can be obtained. The fineness modulus obtained tells if
the aggregate was course or fine and the fineness modulus corresponded to each
aggregate.

References
1. Sieve analysis test. http://www.uta.edu/ce/geotech/lab/Main//sieve/
Retrieved: 10: 57am, 11th October, 2013.
2. Lab # 5 handout.

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Appendices

Figure 5: The sieve stack for both fine and course aggregates (27th November, 2013)
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Figure 6:electronic balance with course aggregates (27th November, 2013)

Lab report # 2

Name of course: Engineering materials (CIV 111).

Title: Soundness of cement.
Aim: To determine the soundness of a cement paste by measuring its expansion by the Le
Chatalier method.

Date Performed: 24th September, 2010

Date submitted: 11th October, 2013
UG : Faculty of Technology

Name of student: Pablo Gomes

REG #: 13/0905/0276
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