1. Determination of Liquid and Plastic Limits of soil sample.

Objective:
Determine the liquid and plastic limit of the given soil sample and get
acquainted with the procedure.

Equipment:
i. Liquid limit device (Casagrande) with ASTM grooving tool
ii. Moisture cups
iii. Balance sensitive to 0.01 gram.
iv. Sieve pan US. No. 40
v. Miscellaneous equipment such as spatula water bottle etc. for easy mixing
of soil.

Theory:
Consistency of a fine-grained soil is the physical state in which it exists. It is
used to define the degree of firmness of the soil i.e. soft, firm or hard.
Consistency of the soil is defined by three limits namely liquid limit, plastic limit
and shrinkage limit in accordance to which the soil exists in liquid, plastic, semi-
solid or solid state. Both liquid limit and plastic limits are also known as
Atterberg limit named after Albert Atterberg (also known as consistency limit).
Consistency limits are the basic measure of the critical water contents of fine
grained soil (of the three consistency limits: Shrinkage limit, plastic limit and
liquid limit shrinkage limit is not discussed in this section).
a. Liquid limit: It is the water content at which the soil changes from the
liquid state to plastic state i.e. it is the moisture content below which
the soil behaves as plastic material.
b. Plastic limit: It is the moisture content below which soil is non-plastic
i.e. stops acting plastic material.
c. Shrinkage limit: It is the moisture content below which no further soil
volume reduction occurs or in other words is the smallest water
content at which soil becomes saturated.
Figure 1 shows the change in the state of soil at different consistencies.
Although represented as sudden change in the state of the soil mass, in actual
the transition is gradual.
 Figure 1 Different state of soil and consistency limits depicting the state of soil

Laboratory determination of liquid and plastic limit:

For determination of both the consistency limits the test are to be performed
on soil passing through US No. 40 sieve. The soil sample which is directly
obtained from the field will be too wet to pass through sieve opening but in
accordance to ASTM D421-58 the samples may be air dried to pass through
sieve. Oven drying of the sample which can be passes through the sieve will in
general lower both the values of liquid and plastic limit.
Liquid limit in laboratory is determined with the help of Liquid limit test
equipment (Casagrande) with ASTM standard grooving tool or Casagrande
grooving tool (Figure 2). The liquid limit is defined for the water content at
which 25 blows close the standard groove 12.7 mm. Since the water content
cannot be perfectly determined with the availability of time hence graph is
drawn by plotting blows counts to a logarithmic scale vs. water content in
natural scale. With this being stated now its simpler to determine the blow
count respective to 25 blows from semi logarithmic graph, but it should be
 noted that closer the plotted points are to the blow count of 25, the more
reliable is the value of the liquid limit obtained from the graph.

Figure 2Liquid limit test equipment

In other hand, the plastic limit has been arbitrarily defined as that water content of
the soil at which a thread just crumbles when it is rolled down to a diameter of 3mm,
or approximately 3mm. This specific test is dependent on the person performing the
test as compared to the liquid limit since it depends on the judgement of 3mm dia.
and crumbling.

Procedure
a. For liquid limit
Step 1: Preparation of sample
 Air dried sample was taken in sufficient quantity and was pulverized in quantity
such that it would produce 250 gm approx. of sample after sieving through
No.40 sieve.

Step 2: Check of instrument

The liquid limit instrument was checked for the fall of drop and
tightness of the cam for the drop of the cup. For the check of fall of
drop the cup was raised to the highest point of fall and then the gap
between the cup and the rubber pad was checked using the 1-cm
calibration block on the end of the grooving tool (ASTM) . The necessary
adjustment are then made using the adjustment screws.
Step 3: Mixing of the sample
The sample previously prepared is mixed by placing over glass, during
mixing of the sample it was made sure that the mixing was proper as
the poor mixing is the major source of error in the test to be performed.
An approximation was made through observation for the mixing of the
sample such that the sample was neither too hard nor too soft and in
range such that a drop of 40 number would close the gap.
Step 4: Testing the sample
The sample is then placed on brass cup to the correct depth of the
grooving tool, and using grooving tool a clean, straight groove was cut
such that the groove cuts the soil sample into two parts for this purpose
ASTM tool was used. The blow count was then made for the closing of
the sample and initial samples that gave blow count greater than 50
was rejected from the test results.
Step 5:
After the test a small slice of the sample was taken in a moisture cup
which was previously weighed and was placed in the oven for drying.
After this the process from step 3 to 4 was repeated with addition of
small amount of water to the sample, so as to get 4 data sets.
Step 6:
The dry weight of the samples in the moisture cup was taken after 24
hours.
b. Plastic limit
 Step 1: Sample
The sample for the plastic limit test was taken during the liquid limit
test where the chunk of the sample was separated.
Step 2: Rollin of the sample
The sample was rolled keeping on a glass plate with sufficient pressure
so as the diameter of the sample reduces to thread using about 80-90
rolling strokes per min. When the diameter of the sample becomes
3mm remold the sample and re roll the sample, the process was
continued till the soil sample could no longer be rolled into thread. The
process was stopped when there were cracks developed in the rolled
thread.

Step 4:
Chunk of thread was kept in a previously weighed moisture can and left
for drying for 24 hours.
Observation
The test data obtained are tabulated and a semi log graph was plotted for the
determination of water content corresponding to 25 number of blows.
 Geotechnical Soil Investigation
Masters in Geotechnical Engineering
LIQUID LIMIIT

Name N/A Date

Location N/A Sample no N/A
Soil Classification Blackish clayey soil
Specific gravity N/A Depth N/A Tested by Group B

Number of blows 45.00 22.00 21.00 30.00

Container no. 24.00 10.00 84.00 6.00
Wt. Cot. + Wet Soil gr. 25.39 19.74 22.64 23.13
Wt. cont. + Dry soil gr. 23.95 18.73 20.83 21.08
Wt. water gr. 1.44 1.01 1.81 2.05
Wt. of Cont. gr. 17.29 16.36 16.76 16.03
Wt. Dry Soil gr. 6.66 2.37 4.07 5.05
Water Content % 21.62 42.62 44.47 40.59
PLASTIC LIMIT

Container No. 15.00 22.00

Wt. Cot. + Wet Soil gr. 20.26 18.66
Wt. cont. + Dry soil gr. 19.75 18.33
Wt. water gr. 0.51 0.33
Wt. of Cont. gr. 18.07 17.33
Wt. Dry Soil gr. 1.68 1.00
Water Content % 30.36 33.00
Average Moisture content 31.68
 Figure 3: Semi log graph between number of flows and water content ( Flow curve)

Water content corresponding to 25 number of blows = 42.5%

Plastic limit = 31.68%

Conclusion
With the test carried out the liquid limit for the sample was found to be 42.5% and
plastic limit was found to be 31.68%.