MACATANGAY, LORIELYN C.

AUGUST 22, 2018

GROUP 6 SCORE:
CE-4103

TECHNICAL REPORT NO. 1

GEOTECHNICAL ELEMENTS

TITLE:
SOIL IN HIGHWAY ENGINEERING

CONSISTENCY OF SOIL

ATTERBERG LIMITS
When clay minerals are present in fine-grained soil, that soil can be remolded in the
presence of some moisture without crumbling. This cohesive nature is because of the
absorbed water surrounding the clay particles. In the early 1900s, a Swedish scientist
named Albert Mauritz Atterberg developed a method to describe the consistency of fine-
grained soils with varying moisture contents. At a very low moisture content, soil
behaves more like a brittle solid. Hence, on an arbitrary basis, depending on the moisture
content, the nature of soil behavior can be broken down into four basic states: solid,
semisolid,plastic and liquid.

The moisture content, in percent, at which the transition from solid to semisolid state
takes place is defined as the shrinkage limit. The moisture content at the point of
transition from semisolid to plastic state is the plastic limit and from plastic to liquid
state is the liquid limit. These limits are also known as Atterberg limits.

BODY
Atterberg Limits
Clay soils with very low moisture content will be in the form of solids. As the water
content increases, however, the solid soil gradually becomes plastic-that is, the soil easily
can be molded into different shapes without breaking up. Continuous increase of the
water content will eventually bring the soil to the state where it can flow as a viscous
liquid. The stiffness or consistency of the soil at any time therefore depends on the state
at which the soil is, which in turn depends on the amount of water present in the soil. The
water content levels at which the soil changes from one state to the other are the
Atterberg Limits.

Shrinkage Limit (SL)

When a saturated soil is slowly dried, the volume shrinks, but the soil continues to
contain moisture. Continuous drying of the soil, however, will lead to a moisture content
at which further drying will not result in additional shrinkage. The volume of the soil will
stay constant, and further drying will be accompanied by air entering the voids. The
moisture content at which this occurs is the shrinkage limit, or SL of the soil.
Shrinkage test measures the changes in volume and weight that occur as partly
mixture of soil and water. Sample is dried from the near liquid limit to constant weight of
110℃. The results are stated in terms of shrinkage limit, volumetric change and lineal
shrinkage.
 Higher value of shrinkage factor showed that the soil will give more trouble and
problem. The volume of a certain soil increases when it absorbs water. Soils that are
suitable for subgrade and base course are those that expand very little when moistened.
And those that swell more are considered as poor materials. A common soil specimen
requires volume change limit of 1% for base coarse materials.

Plastic Limit (PL)

The plastic limit, or PL, is defined as the moisture content at which the soil crumbles
when it is rolled down to a diameter of one-eighth of an inch. The moisture content is
higher than the PL if the soil can be rolled down to diameters less than one-eighth of an
inch and the moisture content is lower than the PL if the soil crumbles before it can be
rolled to one-eighth of an inch diameter.

Liquid Limit (LL)

The liquid limit, or LL, is defines as the moisture content at which the soil will flow
and close a groove of one-half inch within it after the standard LL equipment has been
dropped 25 times.
The range of moisture content over which the soil is in the plastic state is the
difference between the LL and the PL and is known as the plasticity index (PI).

Liquidity Index (LI)

The liquidity index, or LI, is used to reflect the properties of the natural soil. It can
also be defined by a ratio of the relative consistency of a cohesive soil in the natural state.
LI < 0, will have a brittle fracture
0 < LI < 1, will be in a plastic state
LI > 1, the soil will be in a state of viscous liquid if sheared

Plasticity Index (PI)

The range of moisture content over which the soil is in the plastic state is the
difference between the LL and PL.
PI = LL - PL

Permeability
The permeability of a soil is the property tha tdescribes how water flows through the
soil. It is usually in terms of the coefficient of permeability (K), which is the constant of
proportionality of the relationship between the flow velocity and the hydraulic gradient
between two points in the soil. This relationship was first determined by the French
engineer Henry DÁrcy.
 The coefficient of permeability of a soil can be determined in the laboratory by
conducting either a constant head or falling head test or in the field by pumping tests.
Clays and fine-grained soils have very low permeability; thus hardly any flow of
water occurs in these soils. Coarse-grained soils, such as gravel and sands, have high
permeability, which allows fow water to flow easily in them.
Soils with high permeability are therefore generally stable, both in the dry and
saturated states.
Note, however, that capillary action may occur in some permeable soils such as
“dirty’gravel, which may cause serious stability problems.
Capillary action is the movement of free moisture by capillary forces through small
diameter openings in the soil mass into pores that are not full of water.

Shear Strength
The shear strength of soils is of particular importance to the highway engineer,
because soil masses will usually fall in shear under highway loads. The shear strength of
a soil depends on the cohesion and the angle of internal friction.
The degree of importance of either the cohesion or the angle of internal friction
depends on the type of soil.
In fine-grained soils such as clay, the cohesion component is the major contributor to
the shear strength. In fact, it is usually is assumed that the angle of internal friction of
saturated clays is zero, which makes the shearing resistance on any plane of these soils
equal to the cohesion C. Factors that affect the shear strength of cohesive soils include the
geologic deposits, moisture content, drainage conditions and density.
In coarse-grained soils such as sands, the shear strength is achieved mainly through
the internal resistance to sliding as the particles roll over each other. The angle of internal
friction is therefore important. The value of the angle of internal friction depends on the
density of the soil mass, the shape of individual soil particle and surface texture. In
general, the angle of internal friction is high when the density is high. Similarly, soils
with rough particles such as angular sand grains will have a high angle of internal
friction.
The laboratory shearing strengths of soils can be obtained by conducting either the
triaxial test, the unconfined test, or the direct shear test. These tests may be conducted
either on the undisturbed soil or on remolding soils. Note, however, that in using
remolded samples, the remolding should represent conditions similar to those in the field.
The in situ shearing strengths of soils can be obtained directly by conducting either
on the plate-bearing test or cone penetration test. Details of each of these tests can be
found in AASHTO’s Standard Specifications for Transportation Materials and Methods
of Sampling and Testing.

REFERENCES

1. Das, BM (2017) Fundementals of Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Edition. Cengage

Learning, Philippine Edition
2. http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.re.20170704.03.html
3. https://www.scribd.com/document/336909222/03-Chapter-17-Soil-Engineering-
for-Highway-Design