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TITLE:

ATTEBERG LIMIT TEST

OBJECTIVES
To determine the liquid limit, the plastic limit and the linear shrinkage shrinkage and plasticity index
of the given soil sample.

INTRODUCTION:
The Atterberg limits are a basic measure of the critical water contents of a fine-grained soil, such as its
shrinkage limit, plastic limit, and liquid limit. As a dry, clayey soil takes on increasing amounts of
water, it undergoes dramatic and distinct changes in behavior and consistency. Depending on the water
content of the soil, it may appear in four states: solid, semi-solid, plastic and liquid. In each state, the
consistency and behavior of a soil is different and consequently so are its engineering properties. Thus,
the boundary between each state can be defined based on a change in the soil's behavior. The atterberg
limits can be used to distinguish between silt and clay, and it can distinguish between different types of
silts and clays. These limits were created by Albert Atterberg, a Swedish chemist.[1] They were later
refined by Arthur Casagrande. These distinctions in soil are used in assessing the soils that are to have
structures built on. Soils when wet retain water and some expand in volume. The amount of expansion
is related to the ability of the soil to take in water and its structural make-up (the type of atoms
present). These tests are mainly used on clayey or silty soils since these are the soils that expand and
shrink due to moisture content. Clays and silts react with the water and thus change sizes and have
varying shear strengths. Thus these tests are used widely in the preliminary stages of designing any
structure to ensure that the soil will have the correct amount of shear strength and not too much change
in volume as it expands and shrinks with different moisture contents.
As a hard, rigid solid in the dry state, soil becomes a crumbly (friable) semisolid when a certain
moisture content, termed the shrinkage limit, is reached. If it is an expansive soil, this soil will also
begin to swell in volume as this moisture content is exceeded. Increasing the water content beyond the
soil's plastic limit will transform it into a malleable, plastic mass, which causes additional swelling.
The soil will remain in this plastic state until its liquid limit is exceeded, which causes it to transform
into a viscous liquid that flows when jarred.
THEORY
The moisture contents of cohesive soil corresponding to empirically-defined boundaries between states
of consistency (liquid, plastic, solid) of the fraction of soil passing a 425 m sieve. These boundaries,
and the soil phases they define, are illustrated in following Figure.

Liquid limit (WL) the moisture content at which a soil on losing water passes from the liquid to
Plastic limit (Wp) the moisture content at which a soil on losing water passes from the plastic
state to the semi-brittle solid state, and becomes too dry to be plastic.
Plasticity Index (IP) the range of moisture contents within which the soil is in the plastic solid
state (ie. the plastic range), in which it can be moulded without cracking.
Ip=wL-wP
Liquidity Index (IL) relates the moisture content of the fraction of soil which passes a 425m sieve
(wa %) to the liquid and plastic limits. Can give an indication of shear strength.

Where

in which w% is the moisture content of the whole soil.


Pa is the percentage by dry mass of the portion passing a 425m sieve
APPARATUS

Casagrandes liquid limit device

Grooving tolls of both standard and ASTM types

Oven

Evaporating dish or glass sheet

Spatula

40

Weighing balance accuracy 0.01g.

Wash bottle.

IS sieve

Conclusion
The subject of the study is the liquid limit that is an empirically determined state at which a transition
from a softly plastic to liquid state occurs, therefore after its achieving soil starts to behave as a liquid
substance. The liquid limit measurement is principal especially for finding consistency states playing
a decisive role for determining the key standard characteristics of soils representingimportant
geotechnical parameters of fine-grained soils for investigations of the so-called first geotechnical
category. In conclusion before realization of the tests the sample set up for 24 hours for the purpose of
even distribution of moisture.
References

Seed, H.B. (1967). "Fundamental Aspects of the Atterberg Limits". Journal of Soil Mechanics and
Foundations Div., 92(SM4), Retrieved from http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=38900

Das, B. M. (2006). Principles of geotechnical engineering. Stamford,CT: Thomson Learning


College.

Sowers, 1979. Introductory Soil Mechanics and Foundations: Geotechnical Engineering, 4th Ed.,
Macmillan, New York. (as referenced in Coduto, 1999. Geotechnical Engineering: Principals and

Practices. Prentice Hall. New Jersey.)


Soil Properties, Liu, Cheng and Evett, Jack, Fourth Edition 2000, Prentice Hall.
Manion, William P. (wmanion@maine.edu). "Soil Mechanics Laboratory Course CIE
366." University of Maine, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department,
Orono, Maine. http://www.umeciv.maine.edu/cie366/.

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