Answers to Questions

1. What is the purpose of the liquid limit test?

The importance of the liquid limit test is to classify soils.

2. How do you define liquid limit?

The water content at which soil passes from the plastic to the liquid state under standard

test conditions.

3. Why do you use a special cup and cranking device to determine the liquid limit?

Why not use another shape for the cup?

A special cup and cranking device is used to determine the liquid limit because those are

the standards of the A7T8 and every test must comply with the A7T8 standards 9A7T8.

The cup can be adjusted for a 1-mm fall and can be raised and dropped. Not only that but,

the shape of the cup is cur'ed in a way that the plasticity of moist soil can easily be seen.

4. Should you add or remove water to obtain a lower blow count?

A lower blow count can be obtained by adding water to the paste.

5. What is the minimum number of data points required to determine the liquid limit?

The minimum number of data points required to determine the liquid limit is two.

6. What is the purpose of calibration of the Atterberg device?

This method provides instructions for checking the dimensions of the cup and base of the

liquid.
 7. Under what conditions would you use seawater to moisten a clay sample?

Classification tests included gradation, liquid limit, and plastic limit tests. The clay material

was found to have high liquid limit and plastic limit.

8. Is there a typical value for the liquid limit for clean fine sand? Justify your answer.

The percentage moisture content at which a soil changes with decreasing wetness from

the liquid to the plastic consistency or with increasing wetness from the plastic to the liquid

consistency.

Introduction
This experiment is about liquid limit in soil. The liquid limit of a soil is the water

content at which the soil behaves practically like a liquid, but has small shear strength. It

flows to close the groove in just 25 blows in Casagrande’s liquid limit device.

Principles of the Experiment

. When water is added to dry soil, it changes its state of consistency from hard to soft. If

we add water to a fine-grained soil, then water will change its consistency from hard to

semi hard. If we continue to add more water then again, the soil will change its state of

consistency from semi hard to plastic and finally reach a liquid consistency stage. When

the soil reaches liquid consistency state, it has remained no cohesive strength to retain its

shape under its own weight. It will start to deform its shape. So, the amount of water which

is responsible for this state of consistency of soil is called liquid limit of soil. In other words,

we can define liquid limit as the minimum water content at which the soil is still in the liquid

state, but has a small shearing strength against flow.

 Interpretation of Result

This testing method is used as an integral part of several engineering classifications

systems to characterize the fine‑grained fractions of soils and to specify the fine‑grained

fraction of construction materials. The liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index of soils

are also used extensively, either individually or together, with other soil properties to

correlate with engineering behavior such as compressibility, permeability, compactibility,

shrink‑swell and shear strength.

Application

The value of liquid limit helps in classification of fine grain soil. Also, the values of liquid

limit are required to calculate flow index, toughness index etc.

Conclusions

This test method covers the determination of the liquid limit, plastic limit and

plasticity index of soils. The liquid and plastic limits of soils are often referred the as the

Atterberg limits.
References

 http://www.aboutcivil.org/to-determine-liquid-limit-plastic-limit-of-soil.html

 https://theconstructor.org/geotechnical/the-liquid-limit-of-soil-test/2877/

 https://www.slideshare.net/NurulAdha2/atterberg

 ftp://ftp.fao.org/fi/cdrom/fao_training/fao_training/general/x6706e/x6706e08.htm

 https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/technical-

services-repository/GTM-7b.pdf

 http://www.geotechnique.info/si/si%20book%20chapter%208.pdf

 https://globalroadtechnology.com/atterberg-limits/