1. Identify soil description through manual and visual procedures. 2. The activity aims to introduce the process of inspecting soil identification and description. 2. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs): The students shall be able to: Understand the different characteristics of soil through conducting this experiment. Evaluate and analyze soil initial parameters and classify them according to its descriptions. 3. Discussion: Soil is an agglomerate of mineral and organic materials and sediments found above bedrock. Texturally, the soil is divided into primary groups namely, Coarse Grained soils, Fine Grained soils and Highly organic soils which is also known as peat soil. Peat soil is a problematic soil which is composed mostly of peat (a brown soil like material consisting of decomposed vegetable matter) and consequently rich in humus and acid reaction. In this experiment we only focus on the properties of coarse grained and fine grained soils. The behavior of coarse grained soil is different from fine grained soil. Coarse grained soil is identified primarily on the basis of particle size or grain size. Individual particles are visible in the naked eye. The verbal description of this is done on the basis of its gradation, and particle shape. Particle shapes of coarse grained soils are classified as Angular, Sub- Angular, Rounded and Sub- rounded particles. Angular particles have sharp edges and relatively plane sides with unpolished surfaces. Sub-angular are the particles are similar to angular particles but have round edge. Rounded particles have smoothly curved sides and no evident edges while sub-rounded particles have nearly plane sides but have well-rounded corners and edges. Color and odor of the soil sample is also considered for inspecting organic soils and chemicals that might be present on the soil. Moisture content is for identifying the capacity of soil to absorb water. Identifying cementation on the soil to know the soils strength. Fine grained soils are identified on the basis of its plasticity. Individual particles are not visible by naked eye. In fine grained soil, characteristics such as dry strength, dilatancy and soil toughness were identified. The strength of fine grained soil is identified while exposed to air temperature is gathered in dry strength, the amount of denseness is obtained in dilatancy and strength under certain pressure in soil toughness. It is important that engineers know how to identify and describe the subsoil condition in a given site. For example, as soon as a ground is identified as fine or grained soil, the engineer can immediately formulate some ideas on the nature of problems in a short time what might be encountered when a certain project was conducted in the site and make some precautions in these problems.
Course: Group No.: Group Leader: Group Members: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Experiment No.: Section: Date Performed: Date Submitted: Instructor:
6. Data and Results:
Description Angularity Color Odor Moisture content Reaction with HCl Cementation Description Dry Strength Dilatancy Toughness
Sample 1
Coarse grained soil
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4
Sample 1
Fine grained soil
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4
7. Conclusion:
8. Assessment (Rubric for Laboratory Performance):