Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Void ratio, Moisture Content, and Dry Unit Weight for Some Typical Soils in a Natural State
Type of soil
Loose uniform sand
Dense uniform sand
Loose angular-grained silty sand
Dense angular-grained silty sand
Stiff clay
Soft clay
Loess
Soft organic clay
Glacial till
Void ratio, e
0.8
0.45
0.65
0.4
0.6
0.91.4
0.9
2.53.2
0.3
Dry unit
weight, d
kN/m3
14.5
18
16
19
17
11.514.5
13.5
68
21
Typical Values of Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit, and Activity of Some Clay Minerals
Mineral
Liquid limit, LL
Plastic limit, PL
Kaolinite
Illite
Montmorillonite
Halloysite (hydrated)
Halloysite (dehydrated)
Attapulgite
Allophane
35100
60120
100900
5070
4055
150250
200250
2040
3560
50100
4060
3045
100125
120150
Activity, A
0.30.5
0.51.2
1.57.0
0.10.2
0.40.6
0.41.3
0.41.3
Sridharan et al. (1999) showed that the plasticity index can be correlated to the flow index as obtained
from the liquid limit tests. According to their study,
(%) = 4.12 (%)
(%) = 0.741 (%)
k
cm/sec
1001.0
1.00.01
0.010.001
0.0010.00001
<0.000001
Sand
= 2 10 2.32 0.6
Shahabi, Das,
Tarquin (1984)
Clay
Taylor (1948)
a
Relationship a
Type of soil
Comments
3
1+
3
1+
Medium to fine
sand
= +
= 0
0.50
For e<2.5
Soil type
Coarse sand
Fine sand
Silt
Clay
Range of capillary
rise
m
0.11.2
0.31.2
0.757.5
7.523
Es
kN/m2
18003500
600014000
1000028000
3500070000
Reference
Region of applicability
Skempton (1944) Remolded clays
Chicago clays
Nishida (1956)
All clays
Hough (1957)
Inorganic cohesive soil: silt, silty clay, clay
Cc = 0.115wN
Cc = 0.0046(LL-9)
Cc = 0.75(e0-0.5)
Cc = 0.208e0+0.0083
Cc = 0.1556e0+0.0107
Brazilian clays
Soils with low plasticity
Chicago clays
All clays
On the basis of observations on several natural clays, Rendon-Herrero (1983) gave the relationship for
the compression index in the form
= 0.141
1 + 0 2.38
(
)
1.2
(%)
]
100
The swell index is appreciably smaller in magnitude than the compression index and can generally be
determined from laboratory tests. In most cases,
1
1
5
10
(%)
]
100
Variation of sin with plasticity index for a number of soils (after Kenney, 1959)
Spacing of borings
Project
Boring spacings (m)
One-story buildings
2530
Multistory buildings
1525
Highways
250300
Earth dams
2550
Residential subdivision planning
60100
Consistency
Unconfined
compression
strength
(kN/m2)
0
Very soft
2
25
Soft
50
Medium stiff
100
Stiff
16
200
Very stiff
32
400
Hard
>32
>400
Approximate Relationship Between Corrected Standard Penetration Number and Relative Density of
Sand
Corrected standard penetration
number, Ncor
05
510
1030
3050
Relative
density, Dr
05
530
3060
6095