Lab Report

Geo-Technical Engineering-1(Lab)
CE-209L

Title;

To determine the liquid limit of soil

Instructor;
Dr. Muhammad Shahzad
By; Jawad hussain

17PWAGR0783

Fourth Semester Spring 2019

Department of Agricultural Engineering

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University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar,
Pakistan

Experiment no 5

To Determine the Liquid Limit of Soil

Scope
This procedure determines the liquid limit of soils, defined as the water content of a soil at the
arbitrarily determined boundary between the liquid and plastic states, expressed as a percentage
of the oven-dried mass of the soil.

The values given in parentheses (if provided) are not standard and may not be exact
mathematical conversions. Use each system of units separately. Combining values from the two
systems may result in nonconformance with the standard.

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Theory
This test is done to determine the liquid limit of any soil. The liquid limit of fine grained
soil is the water content at which the soil behaves practically like a liquid, but has small shear
strength.

Apparatus
Casagrande’s liquid limit apparatus, standard grooving tool, oven, evaporating dish, spatulas, soil
container, balance. , mortar and pastel

Materials
Soil samples and distilled water

Procedure
 First of I all take a soil sample, crush the clods with the help of mortar and pastel. Remove the
organic matter like tree roots, pieces of darks
 Take about 100g of specimen and pass it through IS Sieve no 40. Mix it thoroughly with distilled
water in the evaporating dish and leave it for 10 minutes for soaking
 Place a portion of the paste in the cup of liquid limit device, level the paste so as to have a
maximum depth of 1cm
 Draw a grooving tool through the sample along the symmetrical axis of the cup, holding the tool
perpendicular to the cup
 Cut the soil pat by a proper grooving tool, rotate the handle at the rate of about 2 revolution per
second and count the number of blows till the two parts of the soil sample come into contact for
about 10 mm length
 Take about 10 g of soil near the closed groove and determine its water content

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  Transfer the soil of the cup to the dish containing the soil paste and mix thoroughly after adding
a little more water
 Repeat the foregoing operation to obtain at least 4 reading in the range of 15 to 40 blows
 Plot a flow curve with number of blow as abscissa and the water content as ordinate. Determine
the liquid limit of the soil by and drawing the best straight line through these plotted points

Experimental data and calculations

S no Container No of Weight of Weight of Weight of Moisture
no blows container container + container + content
(g) wet soil (g) dry soil (g) (%)
1 4 (1) 20 21 39.7 36.1 23.8
2 4 (2) 30 21.5 32.2 31.1 11.4
3 4 (3) 22 23.8 37.8 35.3 21.7
4 4 (4) 21 20.6 34.9 32.3 22.2