Principles of Geotechnical Engineering

Eighth Edition

Chapter 5
Classification of
Soil

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Student Objectives and Outline

 5.2 – Understand what textural classification of soil is

 5.3 – Understand how classification by engineering
behavior provides advantages over textural classification
 5.4 – Learn about the AASHTO classification system
 5.5 – Learn about the Unified soil classification system
 5.6 – Know the differences and similarities of the AASHTO
and Unified soil classification systems

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

5.2 Textural Classification

 The texture of the soil refers to its surface appearance

 Texture is influenced by the size of its components
 Soils are generally mixtures of particles from several size
groups, and are named after their principle components
 The USDA textural classification system categorizes soils
based on the percentage of sand, silt, and clay

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Textural Classification (cont.)

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

5.3 Classification by Engineering Behavior

 Textural classification is based entirely on the particle-size

distribution, and does not account for the type of clay
minerals, which influences it’s physical properties
 Other systems of classification, including the AASHTO
system and the Unified Soil Classification System, use the
Atterberg limits to account for plasticity

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

5.4 AASHTO Classification system

 The AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and

Transportation Officials) system was developed in 1929,
and has been revised several times since then
 Soils are classified into seven groups, A-1 through A-7
 Soils where more than 35% of the particles pass through
a No. 200 sieve are groups A-4 through A-7, and groups
where less than 35% pass through are groups A-1 to A-3

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

AASHTO Classification system (cont.)

 The soil may then be

classified by its liquidity
limit and plasticity index
 The plot on the right shows
the ranges of each soil
 Alternatively, Table 5.1
may be used to classify the
soil based on LL and PI

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

AASHTO Classification system (cont.)

 The group index is defined as follows:

𝐺𝐼 = 𝐹200 − 35 0.2 + 0.005 𝐿𝐿 − 40 + 0.01(𝐹200 − 15)(𝑃𝐼 − 10)
 𝐹200 is the percentage of the soil that is small enough to
pass through a No. 200 sieve
 In general, the group index is inversely proportional to the
soil’s quality as a subgrade material
 Soils belonging to groups A-1-a, A-1-b, A-2-4, A-2-5, and
A-3 always have a group index of 0

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

5.5 Unified Soil Classification System

 The Unified classification system divides soils into two

broad categories
 Coarse-grained soils, with less than 50% passing through the
No. 200 sieve, are given prefixes of G for gravel or S for sand
 Fine-grained soils, with more than 50% passing through the
No. 200 sieve, are given prefixes of M for inorganic silt, C for
inorganic clay, O for organic silts and clays, or Pt for peat

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Unified Soil Classification System (cont.)

 Soils are further classified by:

 W for well graded
 P for poorly graded
 L for low plasticity (liquid limit less than 50%)
 H for high plasticity (liquid limit greater than 50%)

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Plasticity Chart for Unified Soil

Classification System

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

5.6 Comparison between the AASHTO and

Unified Systems

 Both the AASHTO and Unified systems are based on the

texture and plasticity of soil
 Both divide soils into two major categories based on the
percent of the soil that passes through the No. 200 sieve
 AASHTO considers a soil fine grained if more than 35%
passes through the sieve, and coarse grained otherwise
 Unified uses a 50% threshold instead

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Comparison between the AASHTO and

Unified Systems (cont.)

 The Unified system clearly separates gravelly and sandy

soils, unlike the AASHTO system
 Only the Unified system classifies organic soils separately
 The categories of the AASHTO system correspond loosely
to categories in the Unified system, as described by Table
5.4 (on next slide)

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Comparison between the AASHTO and

Unified Systems (cont.)

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Summary

 Textural classification names soils based on their sand,

silt, and clay-size fractions
 The USDA soil classification system is a textural
classification system
 The AASHTO and Unified systems use sieve analysis,
liquid limit, and plasticity index to categorize soils

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