A H M 531 Specific Gravity By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

Objective:

Determine the specific gravity of the solid soil.

General discussion:

Specific gravity can be defined as the ratio between the density of a substance and the density
of water at 4º C.

This formula can be reduce to relate the mass of the solid to the mass of equal volume of
water, which can be measured easily in the lab, to the following;

These tests is based on the determination of the volume of a known mass of soil, and then
compute the mass of the same volume of water and then apply the two masses to the equation
above.
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The procedures of this test are based mainly on Archimedes principle which stats: A body
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submerged in a volume of water will displace a volume of water equal to the volume of the
submerged body.
Mainly there will be three weight measured:

Weight of the flask + water

Weight of the soil (Ws) Weight of flask + water+ soil (Wfws)
(Wfw)

The weight of water (Ww) is equal to;

And the formula for calculating the specific gravity becomes;

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A H M 531 Specific Gravity By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

An important criterion for applying this test is that all the samples must be de-aerated before
taking the weight, as the presence of air will provide same volumes for smaller mass and this
will lead to a smaller specific gravity.
The air is removed by one of the following methods:
1. Heating the specimen to boiling.
2. By using the vacuum pump. (Used in this test)

For soil mechanics, the calculation of the specific gravity of a soil sample is necessary to
compute the void ratio of the sample, it is used in the hydrometer analysis and is useful to
compute the soil density.

Sample identification:
Light brown sample

Equipments:
1. Volumetric flask (Pycnometer).

2. Vacuum pump.

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3. Weighing machine.

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4. Distilled water.

Procedures:
1. Fill the flask with water to the mark, where the bottom of the meniscus is exactly at
the mark, and then place the flask in the vacuum pump for few minute for de-aerating
water. Then the weight is measured (Wfw).

2. Empty the flask from water, and fill it with the soil sample and with water to below
the mark, so that there will be no loss in water or soil due to boiling, and then place
the flask in the vacuum pump for 15 to 30 min for de-aerating the sample.

3. The flask filled with soil and water is then removed from the vacuum pump, and
refilled with water to the mark but carefully, so that there will be no introduction of
air bubbles into the specimen again. The edges higher of the mark of the flask are
cleaned from excess water using a tissue paper. Then the weight is measured (Wfws).

4. The flask is emptied into a clean plate (known weight) with being careful of not
leaving any part of the specimen (soil) in the flask, and then the plate is move into the
oven for drying the specimen.

5. On the following day, the plate is removed from the oven and the weight of oven
dried soil is obtained (Ws).

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A H M 531 Specific Gravity By: Ahmed Essam Mansour

Calculations:

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Discussion and results:
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The obtained specific gravity indicates that the soil used might be organic soil as noted from
the table in the manual (Page74).

The main source of error in the test was the presence of air in the soil or in water, although we
placed the specimen in the vacuum pump, the air voids can never be zero in a small time
interval such that we used in the test.

The use of distilled water is used to reduce the entrapped air, and decrease errors while using
tap water highly increase errors.

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