EXPERIMENT NO.

8
GRAIN-SIZE ANALYSIS MECHANICAL METHOD

I. Objective
To introduce the student to the method of making a mechanical grain size analysis of a soil
and presenting the resulting data

II. Equipments
Set of sieves
Mortar and pestle or rubber mallet
Mechanical sieve shaker
Balance

III. Discussion

Some type of grain-size analysis is universally used in the engineering classification

of soils. Part of the suitability criteria of soils for roads, airfields, levees, dam, and other
embankment construction is the grain size analysis. Soil-water movement can be predicted from
information obtained by grain size analysis. Soil water movement can be predicted from
information obtained by grain size analysis.
Actually it is not possible to determine the individual soil sizesthe test can only bracket
the various ranges of sizes. This is accomplished by obtaining the quantity of material passing
through a given sieve opening but retained on a sieve of smaller sized openings and then relating
this retained quantity to the total sample.
The sieves are made of woven wire with rectangular openings in size from 101.6mm (4in.)
in the coarse series to the No. 400 (0.038mm) in the fine series. The No. 200 sieve (0.075mm) is
the smallest practical sieve size. This mesh is about the finest size which permits a relatively free
passage of water. When it is desired to know the range of grain size smaller than the No. 200 sieve,
the Hydrometer Method analysis has to be used.
Information obtained from the grain size analysis is presented in the form of a curve called
the grain size distribution curve which is plotted with the percent passing (or percent finer) as
ordinate in natural against the grain sizes as abscissa in logarithmic scale.
From the grain size distribution curve, grain sizes such as D10, D30, and D60 are obtained.
The D refers to the grain size or apparent size diameter, of the soil particles and the subscript (10,
30, 60) denotes the percent which is smaller. For example, D10=0.15mm from the curve means that
10 percent of the sample grains are smaller than 0.15 mm. The D10 size is called the effective size
of the soil.
 An indication of the spread (or range) of grain sizes is given by the coefficient of uniformity
Cu, defined as
Cu=D60/D10
in which large value of Cu indicates appreciable difference of D60 and D10 sizes.
The coefficient of gradation C0 is a measure of the shape of the curve between D60 and D10 grain
sizes, defined as
Cc = D302 / (D10xD60)

IV. Procedure
1. Weigh all sieves to be used. For sandy to fine-grained soils, the recommended sieve
stack is either nos. 4-10-20-40-60-140-200-pan or nos. 4-10-30-50-100-200-pan.
2. Obtain about 500 grams of oven dry soil from the bag of stock material collected
from the field in Experiment No.2.
3. Pulverize the soil sample with pestle or rubber mallet.
4. Place the stack of sieves in a mechanical sieve shaker and sieve for about 5 minutes.
if a mechanical sieve shaker is not available, shake by hand for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove the stack of sieves from the shaker and obtain the weight of soil remaining
in each sieve. If a sizable portion is retained in No.22 sieve, wash it with water and
dry the portion passing through No.200 sieve. Sum the weights and compare with
the weight obtained in step 2. A loss of more than 2 percent by weight of residue is
considered unsatisfactory and the test should be repeated.
6. Compute the percent retained on each sieve by dividing the weight retained on each
sieve by the original sample weight.
7. Compute the percent passing (or percent finer) by starting with 100 percent and
subtracting the percent retained on each sieve as cumulative procedure, that is:
% passing = 100-sum of % retained
8. Plot the grain-size distribution curve and compute Cu and Cc if less than 12 percent
passes the No. 200 sieve otherwise a hydrometer analysis is to be performed.

V. Data Results
TRIAL 1 TRIAL 2
Weight of dry soil + container 0.513 kg 0.513 kg
Weight of container 0.13 kg 0.13 kg
Weight of dry soil 0.500 kg 0.500 kg
 TRIAL 1

Sieve Diam. Wt. retained + Cum. Mass %

Wt. of pan % retained
No. (mm) pan retained passing

4 0.187 0.358 0.385 5.40 0.027 94.60

10 0.0787 0. 314 0.472 31.60 0.185 63.00
20 0.0331 0.328 0.406 15.60 0.236 52.80
40 0.0165 0.310 0.374 12.80 0.142 71.60
60 0.0098 0.312 0.384 14.40 0.136 72.80
140 0.0041 0.306 0.372 13.20 0.138 72.40
200 0.0029 0.306 0.320 2.80 0.080 84
pan 0.228 0.245 3.40 0.035 3.72

TRIAL 2

Sieve Diam. Wt. retained + Cum. Mass %

Wt. of pan % retained
No. (mm) pan retained passing

4 0.187 0.358 0.362 0.80 0.004 99.20

10 0.0787 0. 314 0.436 24.40 0.126 74.80
20 0.00331 0.328 0.398 14.00 0.192 61.60
40 0.0165 0.310 0.408 19.60 0.168 66.40
60 0.0098 0.312 0.412 20.00 0.198 60.40
140 0.0041 0.306 0.364 11.60 0.158 68.4
200 0.0029 0.306 0.312 1.20 0.064 87.20
0.048
pan 0.228 0.270 8.40 90.40
VI. Conclusion
Sleve Analysis is a type of grain size analysis. It is used to know the classification or type of
the soil obtained. Using AASHTO or USCS classification, we can determine its type by
knowing the percentage of soils retained in each sleve. The limitations of sleve analysis is that
it cannot determine grain sizes smaller than no. 200 sleve.

Mechanical sleve analysis is the determination of the size range of particles present in a soil,
expressed as a percentage of the total dry weight. This method is fpor articles lareger than
0.075mm in diameter. The results of mechanical analysis (sleve and hydrometer analysis) are
generally presented by semi-logarithmic plots known as particle-size distribution curves.
VII. Recommendation
LEGEND:
Trial 1
Trial 2