GARGI MEMORIAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

SOIL MECHANICS LABORATORY

DETERMINATION OF

ATTERBERGS LIMITS

Name........................................................ Class...................Year.................Roll.....................
Experiment No:

Date:....................

Object: To determine the Liquid Limit (L.L), Plastic Limit (P.L), Shrinkage Limit and Plasticity Index (P.I) of
the soil specimen to classify of that soil on the basis of plasticity.
Theory: The behaviour of all the soils, specially clays considerably behaves differently with the presence of
water. The Liquid Limit (L.L), Plastic Limit (P.L) of soils are dependent on the amount and type of clay in a
soil.
Liquid Limit (L.L) is the water content at which the soil has such a small shear strength that it flows to close a
groove of standard width.
Plastic Limit (P.L) is the water content at which the soil begins to crumble when rolled into threads of specified
size. It is the boundary between liquid and plastic states.
Shrinkage Limit (S.L) is the maximum water content at which a reduction in water content will not cause
decrease in the volume of the soil mass. It is the boundary between semi-solid and solid states.
ws=[wt

( V Vd )
w ]
Ms

Where, ws = water content at shrinkage limit

wt =water content at original state
V = volume of empty container

V d = volume of dry soil specimen

M s = mass of dry soil or solid
w = unit weight of water
Apparatus for L.L and P.L: 1. Liquid limit device and grooving tools 2.Aflat large glass plate 3.A wash bottle
containing distilled water, 4. Spatula, 5. Balances, 6. Drying cans for water content determination procedure
Apparatus for S.L: 1.Circular shrinkage dish of porcelain of Stainless Steel with flat bottom with internal
corners rounded into smooth concave curve, about 30 to 40 mm diameter and 15 mm height. 2. Large Porcelain
evaporating dish with flat bottom and lip (2 nos.) about 20 mm diameter.3. Small Porcelain dish about 75 mm
diameter, to be used as a container for weighting mercury, called the mercury weighting dish.4. Small Porcelain
dish about 75 mm square and 3 mm thick with three metal prongs inert to mercury.5. Plain plastic (glass) plate
of similar size as that with prongs. 6. Glass cup, 50 to 55 mm diameter and 25 mm height with level and smooth
rim. 7. Mercury 8.Flexible spatula with blade about 80 mm long and 20 mm wide. 9. Straight edge, about 150
mm long. 10. Balance accurate to 0.01 gm, 425 micron sieve, desiccators, glass cylinder for measuring mercury
volume.
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Procedure:
Liquid Limit (L.L):
1. A sample sieved through B. S No. 32 sieve and weighing about 200gm is taken on the glass plate and
thoroughly mixed with water, using the spatula, until the mass become a thick homogeneous paste.
2. A portion of the paste is placed in the cup and levelled of parallel to the base up to the maximum depth of
in and a standard groove is made by drawing the grooving tools along the symmetrical axis of the cup, holding
the tool perpendicular to the cup at the point of the contact. By turning the crank at the rate of two revolutions
per second, the cup is lifted and drop until the bottom of the groove is closed for a distance of in. The number
of blows at which this occurs is recorder.
3. The sample is mixed in the cup and step 2 is repeated until the number of blow is substantially the same.
4. About 10gms. of soil from near the close groove are taken for water content determination.
5. By altering the water content of the soil and repeating steps (2- 4) find water content determinations in the
range of ten to fifty blows are made.
6. A plot of water content against log of blows is made to draw the flow curve.
7. Liquid limit is read form the flow curve as the water content at twenty five blows.
*8. To get perfect flow curve ( water content in cm scale vs. no. of blows in log scale) - note the blows all
round 15 to 30 combining of all the samples for a particular specimen.

Plastic Limit (P.L):

1. A sample sieved through B. S No.36 sieve and weighting about 20 gms is taken on the glass plate and
thoroughly mixed until the mass become a thick homogeneous and plastic enough to be shaped into a ball.
2. The ball is rolled on the glass plate with the hand until it is 1/8 in. diameter.
3. Step 2. is repeated until a 1/8 in. diameter, thread shows signs of crumbling.
4. Some of the crumbling materials are taken in a container for water content determination.
5. Step (2-4) repeated to obtain three water content determinations which can be average to give the plastic
limit.
Shrinkage Limit (S.L):
1. Mix about 50 gm of soil passing through 425 micron sieve with distilled water to make a creamy paste
which can be placed in the shrinkage dish without any air voids, the required mixing water content is
somewhat greater than the liquid limit.
2. Coat inside of the shrinkage dish with a thin layer of Vaseline or Silicon grease and weight.
3. Fill the dish in three layers by placing soil paste about one third the capacity of the dish at the time and
tapping the gently on a firm surface so that the soil flows to the edge. The firm surface should be properly
cushioned by rubber sheet. The last layer should stand a little about the rim and care should be taken not to trap
air within the soil. Strike off the excess soil in level with the top of the dish and clear on the outside.

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4. Weight immediately the dish full of wet soil. Allow it to dry in air until the colour of the soil pat turns to
light. Then dry in an oven. Cool the dish in dry soil put in a desiccators and weight.
5. Remove the dry pat from the dish, clean and dry the shrinkage dish and determine its empty mass.
6. Weight the empty mercury weighting dish also.
7. Keep the shrinkage in the large porcelain or stainless dish fill it to cover following with mercury and remove
the excess by pressing the plane glass plate firmly over the top of the dish, taking care not to entrap air. Transfer
the contents of the shrinkage dish to the glass cylinder and take the volume.
8. Place the glass cup in a large dish, fill to cover the following with mercury and remove the excess by
pressing the glass plate with prongs firmly over the top of the cup.
9. Wipe of any mercury adhering on the side and then transfers the cup full of mercury to another large dish.
10. Place the dry soils pat on the surface of mercury and submerge it under the mercury by pressing with the
glass plate with prongs taking care not to entrap air.
11. Transfer the mercury displaced by the dry pat to the glass cylinder and take volume.
Observations and Results:
Liquid Limit (L.L):

Sample:

Sample No.
No. of Blows

Colour:
2

Container No.
Wt.
of
empty
Container (
)
Wt. of Container +
Wet soil (
)
Wt. of Container +
Dry soil (
)
Wt. of water (
)
Wt. of Dry soil
(
)
Water content (%)
Average Liquid Limit (L.L) value = .............................. %.
Plastic Limit (P.L): Sample:
Determinatio
n No.

1
2
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Containe
r No.

Weight
of empty
Containe
r(
)

Colour:
Wt. of Co-ntainer+
wet soil
(
)

Wt. of Co-ntainer+
dry soil
(
)

Weight
of
water
(
)

Weight
Water
of
dry content
soil
(%)
(
)

3
Average Plastic Limit (P.L) value = .............................. %.
Shrinkage Limit (S.L): Sample:

Colour:

Determination No.

Container No.
Weight of empty Container (

Weight of Container + wet soil (

Weight of Container + dry soil (

Volume of Container , V (c. c)

Volume of dry soil , V d ( c. c)
Weight of dry soil pat MS (

Shrinkage Limit (WS) , %

Comment table:
Sample
Name

L.L (%)

P.L (%)

P.I=
Commen
L.Lt
P.L, Ip No.1
(%)

S.L
(%)

Flow
Index,
If

Toughness Comment,
Index, It
No.2

1. Draw flow curve (approximate) on semi-log paper.

2. First comment should be make on the basis of I.S classification of fine grained soil [i.e. A line = 0.73 (W L20)]
3. If =

(w 2w 1)/log 10 (N 1 /N 2)

and, It = IP/ If

from flow curve and get IP from comment table.

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, collect every data of first equation at this point

Date:

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Signature of Teacher