Matt Wade

with Sarah Rohm and Seth Fink CE 185 Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory

Laboratory Experiment 2 Particle Size Analysis Mechanical Method

September 26, 2007

Objective

The goal of the experiment is to bring the student in contact with operations related to particle size distribution measurement of a soil. Specically, this experiment deals with gravel and sand (i.e. particle diameters larger than 0.002mm). The soil is separated using seven dierent sizes of sieves to give a breakdown of particle size. The data collected is used to create a particle size distribution curve, which will be very important in the soil identication process. The experiment is done twice: once with the original soil and once again after washing all dust and nes o the original soil.

Materials and Equipment

To successfully complete the experiment, the following materials are required: about 500g soil sample and the following equipment is required: 1 set of sieves, stacked and numbered from top to bottom as such: 4, 10, 20, 40, 60, 140, 200 catch pan for the bottom of the sieve stack sieve cap electronic scale accurate to 0.01g scoop electric sieve stack shaker stibristled brush 2 ceramic dishes oven oven mits access to a sink extra deep #200 sieve

Procedure

Place a ceramic dish on the electronic scale and tare the scale. Use the scoop to measure roughly 500g of evenly mixed, airdried soil. Record the initial measurement. Prepare the stack of sieves in ascending order from top to bottom based on sieve number (i.e. not hole size) making sure to place the pan on the bottom. Pour the soil sample into the top (#4) sieve being careful not to lose any soil. Place a sieve cap on top of the #4 sieve and place in the electric sieve stack shaker. If the entire stack wont t, manually sieve the #4 sieve. It should be easy to tell when sieving is complete as only gravel will remain. Place the remaining stack into the shaker and set for ten minutes. While the shaker is on, clean and dry the ceramic dish, place it on the scale and tare it. When the shaker nishes, take the sieve on the top of the stack and pour its contents into the dish. Use the stibristled brush to remove any particles that may be stuck in the sieve. Record the measurement. Do this for all sieves in the stack working from top to bottom. The measurements recorded will be a cumulative record, so simple arithmetic will have to be done later to nd the weight of the contents of each sieve. Take the contents of the pan and weight them separately and save for a later experiment. Once weighing is completed, take the dish full of soil and bring it to the sink. Hold the extra deep #200 sieve over the sink and dump the soil into the sieve. Turn on the sink and use the water to wash away any dust or nes out of the soil. Once the water coming out the bottom of the sieve is clear, the soil is clean. Clean and dry the ceramic dish and dump the soil sample back in using the water to help. Decant as necessary making sure not to lose any soil. Once the entire sample is back in the dish, place the dish in a 105 C oven for twenty-four hours to boil away any remaining water. On the next day, take the dish out of the oven. Place another dish on the scale and tare it. Pour the sample into the new dish and record the measurement. Prepare the sieve stack once again and repeat the procedure listed above but stop just before washing. The experiment is completed when all the measurements are recorded. The sample can be discarded once the second iteration of the experiment is completed.

Sieve No. 4 10 20 40 60 140 200 Pan

Diameter (mm) 4.75 2.00 0.840 0.425 0.250 0.150 0.075

Cum. Mass (g) 40.63 102.2 161.36 249.52 316.06 398.19 437.45 62.58

Mass Retained (g) 40.63 61.57 59.16 88.16 66.54 82.13 39.26 = 500.03

% Retained 8.13 12.31 11.83 17.63 13.31 16.43 7.85

% Passing 91.87 79.56 67.73 50.10 36.79 20.37 12.52

Table 1: Recorded and calculated data for dry sieving.

Results

The recorded values for the dry sieving can be found in Table 1 and the values for wet sieving can be found in Table 2. For both tables, the sieve numbers are listed in ascending order. Next to that value is the diameter of the opening available in that sieve. The column Cum. Mass refers to the mass of the soil weighed for that sieve and every one above it, in grams. The column Mass Retained shows the mass of soil (in g) actually found in that sieve by taking the cumulative mass of that sieve minus the cumulative mass of the previous sieve. From there the sum of the Mass Retained column is found and the % Retained can be found by dividing the individual mass retained by the total mass. % Passing is calculated by subtracting the percent retained from the individual sieve from the percent passing of the previous (assuming the rst percent passing is equal to 100%). Note that for the percentages, the total mass from the dry analysis () is used for the wet analysis as well.

Discussion and Conclusion

The main goal of this experiment is to create a particle size distribution curve. This type of curve is a semi-logarithmic graph that consists of a dependent variable based on the percent passing (arithmetic scale) and an independent variable based on the sieve size opening (logarithmic scale). This curve is useful because it allows for the determination of four important soil parameters2 :

Sieve No. 4 10 20 40 60 140 200

Diameter (mm) 4.75 2.00 0.840 0.425 0.250 0.150 0.075

Cum. Mass (g) 13.68 43.53 84.33 165.245 230.21 306.11 329.52

Mass Retained (g) 13.68 29.85 40.80 80.92 64.97 75.90 23.41

% Retained 2.74 5.97 8.16 16.18 12.99 15.18 4.68

% Passing 97.26 91.29 83.14 66.95 53.96 38.78 34.10

Table 2: Recorded and calculated data for wet sieving. Eective size (D10 ) This value represents the particle diameter that is 10% ner. Uniformity coecient (Cu ) Cu is an arithmetic value that represents the particle size range. It is dened as such: Cu = D60 D10 (1)

where D60 represents the particle diameter that is 60% ner. A uniform Cu is usually less than ve; a Cu equal to ve is said to be uniform; and a Cu greater than ve is considered nonuniform. Coecient of gradation (Cc ) Cc is another arithmetic value that represents the graded value of the soil. A steeper grade (slope on the curve) represents a poorly graded soil while a gentle grade represents a well graded soil. A soil is considered well graded when Cc is between one and three. The value of Cc is dened as such: Cc =
2 D30 D60 D10

(2)

Sorting coecient (S0 ) S0 is considered another way of measuring a soils uniformity, but will not be used in this experiment. The distribution for this experiment can be found in Figure 1. It contains the data for both the wet and dry sieve analyses. The trend lines are personally added as a general representation of each curve. All values for the wet analysis are larger than those of the dry. Because of this, not all D values can be found for the wet analysis. This test will be completed later by performing a 5

hydrolysis test. To calculate Cu and Cc (of the dry values), the values for D10 , D30 , and D60 must be estimated from the curve. Figure 2 shows estimation lines representing the D values. The red line is for D60 , the blue for D30 , and the green for D10 . The estimated values for those are shown here: D10 = 0.064 D30 = 0.23 D60 = 0.62 From these values, Cu and Cc can be calculated as such: Cu = Cc = D60 0.62 = = 9.69 D10 0.064 (3)

2 D30 0.232 = = 1.704 D60 D10 0.62 0.064

(4)

Based on these values, the soil is said to be nonuniform because Cu is much greater than ve. It is also said to be well graded because Cc is almost halfway between one and three. The distribution curve will be complete when the hydrolysis is done on the silt and clay that was in the soil. From that point the wet analysis will have its own D and C values to compare to. In this experiment, there is not any real conclusion that can be made about the soils, but a general classication can be made based on the percentmake up of the sample. Because the nes will be used for a later experiment, they are not separated by silt and clay, but just realized as one entity. From the data in the wet sieving, more than 50% is retained in sieves with larger openings than #200. This value is the sum of the Percent retained column in Table 2. The value is 65.9%. More than 50% of the course grains are considered sand because they ended up in sieves between #4 and #200. For the wet sieve analysis, the values for Cu and Cc cannot be calculated. The most specic classication that can be made are as follows: AASHTO: A24(0) or A25(0). The plasticity index and liquid limit are necessary for more specic classication. USCS: Either SM, SC, or SCSM. The plasticity index is necessary for more specic classication.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

References
1. Bowles, Joseph E. Engineering Properties of Soils. 4th. Boston: Irwin McGrawHill, 1992. 2. Das, Braja M. Principles of Geotechnical Engineering. 6th. Toronto, ON: Thomson Canada Ltd., 2006. 3. ASTM Standard D 42263, Standard Test Method for Particle-Size Analysis of Soils, ASTM INternational, West Conshohocken, PA, www.astm.org