INDEX PROPERTIES

INDEX PROPERTIES OF SOIL

Soil is heterogeneous in nature
Soil exhibiting approximately similar properties can be grouped for better understanding
This requires an understanding of Index / physical properties of soil.

Index properties can be grouped into (i) Soil Grain Properties and (ii) Soil Aggregate
Properties

Soil Grain Properties: depend on individual grains of soil and is independent of the
manner of soil formation – mineralogical composition, specific gravity, size and shape of
grains

Soil Aggregate Properties: depend on soil mass and represents collective behavior. It is
influenced by soil stress history, mode of formation and soil structure
 Shape of grains
Coarser fraction – visual inspection; finer fraction: microscopic inspection
Impact of shape on compressibility of soil: (i) reduction in volume on application of
pressure depends on shape on grains (ii) presence of some minerals increase
compressibility – (ex) a small mixture of mica to sand increases compressibility greatly

(i) Bulky – Angular, Sub-Angular, Sub-Rounded, Rounded

Angular grains are capable of carrying heavier loads and can be compacted to denser
pack
Angularity
Sphericity
(ii) Flaky – plate shaped grains – negligible thickness

(iii) Needle Shaped – one dimension of grain is fully developed – resembles needles
 Size
Grain Size Analysis:
Coarse Grained Soil: dry sieve analysis
Coarse Analysis – 100, 63, 20, 10 and 4.75 mm
Fine Analysis – 4.75, 2.36, 1.18, 0.600, 0.425, 0.300, 0.150, 0.075 mm –separates coarse,
medium and fine grained sand

Fine Grained Soil: wet sieve analysis – sample passing through 0.075 mm.
Based on the principle of sedimentation
 SEDIMENTATION ANALYSIS
Suitable for particles less than 0.0075 mm

Based on Stoke’s Law:

Stoke’s Law: Velocities of free fall of spherical fine particles through a liquid are
different for different sizes

Though grains are of different shapes it is assumed that they are spherical and have
same specific gravity
Applicable for particles of sizes 0.2 mm to 0.002 mm
 0.2 mm – causes turbulence
 < 0.002 mm – Brownian movement occurs and velocity too small for accurate
measurement.
 CONSISTENCY OF SOIL

Presence of clay mineral in a Fine Grained Soil will allow it to remoulded in the presence
of water content without crumbling
Atterberg developed a method for describing the limit of consistency for fine grained soils
– Atterberg’s or Consistency limits

Atterberg’s limits depend on many factors like

the type and amount of clays and type of
adsorption cation.
Denotes firmness of the soil – soft, stiff, hard
 LIQUID LIMIT
- The water content at which the soil changes from liquid state to plastic state – soil shows least resistance
to flow.
- Strength of all soil at liquid limit is 27 g/cm2
- Determined in the laboratory using Standard Casagrande’s device
- Moisture content corresponding to 25 number of blows
- Number of blow between 10 - 40
Flow Curve

Flow Index – slope of flow curve

Plastic Limit – moisture content at which the

soil changes from plastic to semi-solid state –
minimum moisture content at which the soil is
in plastic state

Plasticity Index = LL – PL
Gives a measure of degree of plasticity of soil

Toughness Index = Ip/If

Gives a measure of strength of the soil at
plastic limit
Lies between 0 and 3 – if less than 1 soil is
friable at plastic limit.
CONE PENETRATION TEST

Cone is released and allowed to penetrate for 30 sec

Repeated at water contents
Water content at which penetration is 25 mm is the liquid limit
wl = wy + 0.01(25-y)(wy+15)
y – penetration at wy water content
Advantages:
Easier to perform
Applicable to wide range of soils
Results do not depend on judgement of the operator
Relative Consistency of cohesive soils defined by

Liquidity Index

Consistency Index CI = wl-wn/Ip

If wn = wl -- in-situ soil is at the initial stage of liquid state - very soft Ci = 0

wn = wp -- in-situ soil is at the initial stage of plastic state - reasonably strong Ci = 1
wn<wp -- in-situ soil is at semi-solid or solid state - very strong Ci >1
Activity Number:
Skempton observed that plasticity index is in linear proportion with the percentage of clay-size fraction
present in the soil – defined the quantity as activity
A = Plastcity Index /percentage of clay-size fraction
Koalinite – 0.3 – 0.5; Illite – 0.5 – 1.2 ; Montmorillonite – 7 (most active)
Thixotrophy
Property by which clay soil regains a part of its strength lost during remoulding with
passage of time at the same water content Attributed to tendency of cohesive soil to
regain their chemical equilibrium with the reorientation of water molecules in the
adsorbed water layer.
Soils having more sensitivity are likely to attain larger thixotropic hardening.

Sensitivity:
Cohesive soils are sensitive to disturbance to their structure on remoulding and lose
strength – the ratio of unconfined compressive strength of undisturbed specimen to
that of disturbed specimen at the same water content is called sensitivity

Sensitivity 1–4 4–8 8 – 15 >15

Classification Normal Sensitive Extra Sensitive Quick
Shrinkage Limit: Minimum water content at which the soil is at semi-solid state or the
maximum water content at which the soil is in solid state. It is the maximum water
content below which there is no volume change when there is further decrease in water
content. Minimum water content at which the soil can be saturated.
(a) water content more than shrinkage limit
(b) Water content at shrinkage limit
(c) Dry soil

Mass of water in the initial stage (a) = Mwet – Mdry

Volume of water evaporated between initial stage and shrinkage limit stage
= (Vwet – Vdry)

Mass of water lost between these stages = [(Vwet – Vdry)w]

Mass of water at shrinkage limit = (Mwet – Mdry) - [(Vwet – Vdry)w]

Mass of dry soil = Mdry
(Mwet – Mdry) - (Vwet – Vdry) w
Water content at shrinkage limit =
Mdry
Using G:
(Vdry - Vs) w
Water content at shrinkage limit (ws) =
Mdry
Vdryw Vsw
(ws) = 
Mdry Mdry
1 Vsw
 
R MS
1 w
 
R S
1 1
 
R G
Shrinkage Ratio (R) = Mdry  Densityofdrysoil  G
Vdryw Densityofwater
Shrinkage Index (Is) – range of moisture content from plastic to shrinkage limit is called
shrinkage index

Is= w p - ws
Volumetric Shrinkage: It is the decrease in volume of the soil mass expressed as a
percentage of dry volume of soil mass when the water content is reduced from the initial
to final water content at shrinkage limit. It is also known as volumetric change or degree
of shrinkage.

Sv= (Vo-Vd/Vd)*100 = (wi-ws)SR