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Geotecnia
Geotecnia
natural soil deposit (the water content), but we need to compare or scale
this water content against some standard of engineering behavior. This is
what the Atterberg limits do-they are important limits of engineering
behavior. If we know where the water content of our sample is relative to
the Atterberg limits, then we already know a great deal about the engineering response of our sample. The Atterberg limits, then, are water contents
at certain limiting or critical stages in soil behavior. They, along with the
natural water content, are the most important items in the description of
fine-grained soils. They are used in classification of such soils, and they are
useful because they correlate with the engineering properties and engineering behavior of fine-grained soils.
The Atterberg limits were developed in the early 1900's by a Swedish
soil scientist, A. Atterberg (l9ll). He was working in the cermics industry, and at that time they had several simple tests to describe the
plasticity of a clay, which was important both in molding clay into bricks,
for example, and to avoid shrinlage and cracking when fired. After many
experiments, Atterberg came to the realization that at least two parameters
were required to define plasticity of clays-the upper and lower limits of
plasticity. In fact, he was able to define several limits of consistency or
behavior and he developed simple laboratory tests to detine these limits.
They are:
(a