DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY- DASMARIÑAS

Dasmariñas, Cavite
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Name: Pascual, Michael Angel B. Date Performed: March 19, 2018

Course-Year & Section: CEE43 Rating:
Group: 4

EXPERIMENT 4
DETERMINATION OF WATER CONTENT, UNIT WEIGHT, VOID RATIO AND DEGREE OF
SATURATION OF A SOIL SAMPLE.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the water content, unit weight, void ration and degree of saturation of
soil in preparation for more elaborate test like compaction and seepage.

APPARATUS

 Container
 Balance
 Oven
 Beaker
 Large knife, wire saw, spatula
 Small metal can
 Graduated cylinder
 Paraffin

PROCEDURE

A. Ware Content
1. Weigh the container without the soil sample.(30g)
2. Weight the container and soil sample
3. Dry the container with the soil sample at a constant temperature between 105
◦C to 100◦C.
4. The drying time will depend upon the size and type of soil (1-6) hours.
5. Remove the container and let it cool to room temperature.
6. If the sample is to be weighed within one hour, cool it at room temperature. If
the sample is not to be weighed at once, it should be placed in a dessicator
cooling.
 B. Unit Weight Determination
1. Trim a sample of soil to about 1 ½ inches diameter and 2 to 3 inches long surface
should be smooth and rounded.
2. Weigh to 0.1 gram
3. Compute the unit weight on grams / cu. Cm. or pound / cu. Feet.

C. Void Ratio and Degree of Saturation Determination

1. Ovens dry the sample and find Ww and final Vw.
2. Determine the V5 of the soil by displacement and final Vv(Vv=V-V5)

DATA AND COMPUTATION

WATER CONTENT DETERMINATION

SAMPLE CAN NO.

WT. OF WET SAMPLE + CAN 73 grams

WT. OF DRY SAMPLE + CAN 69 grams

WT. OF WATER 13 grams

WT. OF CAN 15 grams / 24 grams

WT. OF DRY SAMPLE 45 grams

WATER CONTENT, 𝑤 28.889%

SAMPLE LOCATION
 UNIT WEIGHT

VOLUME OF MEASUREMENT VOLUME OF IMMERSION DISPLACEMENT

WIDTH OF SAMPLE IN 𝑐𝑚 WT. OF SAMPLE 58g

OR DIAMETER IN 𝑐𝑚 6.716 WT, OF DRY SAMPLE 45g
AREA IN 𝑐𝑚2 35.425 VOLUME OF DRY SAMPLE 24.3𝑐𝑐
HEIGHT OF SAMPLE 𝑐𝑐 1.7
WEIGHT OF SAMPLE ON 𝑔𝑚 58
𝑔𝑚
UNIT WEIGHT ON 𝑐𝑐 0.963
UNIT WEIGHT ON 𝑝𝑐𝑓 60.128

VOID RATIO, POROSITY, DEGREE OF SATURATION

AVERAGE WATER CONTENT, 𝑤 28.889%

SPECIAL GRAVITY OF SOLIDS, 𝐺𝑠 2.056
VOID RATION, 𝑒 1.478
POROSITY, 𝑛 0.596
DEGREE OF SATURATION, 𝑠 48.453%

COMPUTATION

AREA
𝜋
𝐴𝑐𝑎𝑛 = (6.716)2
4

𝐴𝑐𝑎𝑛 = 35.425𝑐𝑚2

UNIT WEIGHT
58𝑔
𝛿=
35.425𝑐𝑚2 × 1.7𝑐𝑚

𝛿 = 0.963𝑐𝑚3

CONVERSION

𝑔 (2.54𝑐𝑚)3 (12𝑖𝑛)3 1𝑘𝑔 2.205𝑙𝑏

0.963 3
× 3
× 3
× ×
𝑐𝑚 (1𝑖𝑛) (1𝑓𝑡) 1000𝑔 1𝑘𝑔

𝑙𝑏
= 60.128
𝑓𝑡 3
WEIGHT

𝐵𝑖𝑔 𝑐𝑎𝑛 + 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑖𝑙 = 69 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠

𝑤𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑖𝑙 = 45 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠

GRADUATED CYLINDER

70𝑚𝐿 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 + 45 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑖𝑙 = 94.3 𝑚𝐿

𝑉𝑠 = 24.3𝑚𝐿 ≈ 24.3𝑐𝑐

VOLUME OF WET SAMPLE = 35.425(1.7)

𝑉𝑤 = 60.223𝑐𝑐
60.223 − 24.3
𝑒=
24.3
𝑒 = 1.478
1.478
𝑛=
1.478 + 1
𝑛 = 0.596
45
𝐺𝑠 =
24.3
𝐺𝑠 = 1.852
𝑆𝑒 = 𝐺𝑠 𝑤
𝑆(1.478) = 1.852(0.289)
𝑆 = 0.362 ≈ 36.213%

WATER CONTENT

58 − 45
𝑤= (100)
45
𝑤 = 28.889
ILLUSTRATION

WT. OF WET SAMPLE + CAN WT. OF DRY SAMPLE + CAN WT. OF CAN

WT. OF CAN VOLUME OF WATER VOLUME OF WATER + SOIL

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

This experiment aims to determine the water content, unit weight, void ration and degree
of saturation of soil in preparation for more elaborate test like compaction and seepage.

Water content or moisture content is the quantity of water contained in a material, such
as soil (called soil moisture), rock, ceramics, crops, or wood. The ratio of the weight of a material
to its volume is its unit weight, sometimes termed specific weight or weight density. The unit
weight of solids, Y s, varies with the mineralogy of the soil particles but is commonly in the range
of 26.0 to 27.0 kN/m3 or 165 to 172 lb/ft3. Soil void ratio is the ratio of the volume of voids to the
volume of solids. Void ratio is usually used in parallel with soil porosity, which is defined as the
ratio of the volume of voids to the total volume of the soil. The degree of saturation is the ratio
of the volume of water to the volume of voids.

In this experiment, in ware content part, first thing we did was to weigh the container
without the soil sample. After that, we weight the container and compacted soil sample. We
dried the container with the soil sample for 1 hour in the oven. We remove the container and let
it cool to room temperature. In unit weight determination, compute the unit weight on grams /
cu. Cm. or pound / cu. Feet. In void ratio and degree of saturation determination we used the
graduated cylinder that is filled with water to obtain the height difference that is equivalent to
the volume of the soil. We then compute the V5 of the soil by displacement and final Vv(Vv=V-
V5).

Along with the gathered data, we computed the required variables by solving and using
the formulas in soil mechanics especially using the soil composition formulas. One of the
important values we obtained was the specific gravity of the soil which results to 1.852. The
obtained specific gravity of the soil is close to the true value which makes the experiment correct
and successful.