Types of Soil

Three categories of soil: cohesionless,

cohesive and organic soils.
Cohesionless soil : the soil particle
do not tend to stick together.
Cohesive soils are characterized by
very small particle size where surface
chemical effects predominant. The
particles do tend to stick together-the
result of water-particle interaction and
attractive force between particles.

 Three common type of cohesionless

soils are gravel, sand and silt.
Cohesionless soils
types

Sizes

Gravel

Greater than 2
mm

sand

0.1 mm to 2
mm

0.005maybe
to 0.1
Bothsiltgravel and sand
further
mm
divided in to fine (as fine sand) and
coarse sand(as coarse sand)

 Gravel and sand can be classified

according to particle size by sieve
analysis.
The common type of cohesive soil is
clay, which has particle sizes less
than about 0.005 mm.
Clayey soils cannot be separated by
sieve analysis in to size categories
because no practical sieve can be
made with openings so small;
instead, particle sizes may be
determine by observing settling

Engineering properties
soils
Granular soils, except for loose sand, generally
possess excellent engineering properties:
Large bearing capacity
Small settlement
Make outstanding foundation material for
supporting roads and structure.
Make excellent backfill materials for retaining
wall because they are easily compacted and
easily drained, and because they exert small
lateral pressures.

 Cohesive soils (mostly clays, but also

silty clays and clay-sand mixtures with
clay being predominant) exhibit generally
undesirable engineering properties
compared with those of granular soils:
Lower shear strength.
They can be plastic and compressible, and
they expand when wetted and shrink
when dry.
They develop large lateral pressure and
low permeability's.
Poor material for retaining wall backfill.

 Silty soils are on the border

between clayey and sandy soils.
They are fine-grained like clays but
cohesionless like sand.
Silty soils possess undesirable
engineering properties :
High capillarity and susceptibility to
frost action, yet they have low
permeability and low densities.

 Any soils containing a sufficient

amount of organic matter to affect its
engineering properties is called
organic soils.
Organic soils are typically spongy,
crumbly, and compressible. They
posses low shear strength and may
contain harmful materials.
Organic soils are essentially
unacceptable for supporting
foundation.

MACKINTOSH PROBE
Proba Mackintosh atau proba JKR
adalah satu kaedah yang telah
diperkenalkan untuk penyiasatan
tanah di peringkat awal. Ianya
adalah satu kaedah yang paling
murah dan sering diguna pakai untuk
tujuan penyiasatan tapak.
Penentuan keupayang galas
tanah(bearing capacity of soils)

Rajah 1: Susunan umum proba JKR (a), penunjuk proba JKR

(b) dan penunjuk proba mackintosh (c).

Standard Penetration test

(ASTM D 1586)
Useful in determining certain properties of
soils, particularly of cohesionless soils, for
which undisturbed sample are not easily
obtained.
623-N hammer falling 762 mm is used to drive
the split-spoon sampler 457 mm into the soil.
As a sample is driven the 457 mm into the
soil, the number of blow required to penetrate
each of the three 152-mm increments is
recorded separately.

 The SPT resistance value (or N-value)

is number of blow required to
penetrate the last 305 mm.
Thus, the N-value represent the
number of blow per foot(305mm).

Method to correct-N-value
First Method (Peck et al, 1974)

Second Method Terzaghi et al, 1996 and Liao

and Whitman

TYPICAL BORE LOG FOR A PROJECT IN

MALAYSIA

END