Group No: Date:

Leader: Weather:

Members:
1. ____________________________ 4. ______________________________
2. ____________________________ 5. ______________________________
3. ____________________________ 6. ______________________________

EXERCISE 1

WATER CONTENT DETERMINATION

OBJECTIVE:

To familiarize the student with the procedure of determining the amount of water in a
soil sample .

DISCUSSION:
Water content determination is a routine laboratory experiment to determine the amount
of water in a quantity of soil sample.

REFERENCE: ASTM D 2216

APPARATUS:
Tin can
Oven with temperature control

PROCEDURE:
1. Weigh a tin cup including its cover, identify the cover and its lid.
2. Place a representative sample of wet soil in the cup. Determine the weight of wet soil
and tin cup.
3. Place the sample in the oven for at least 3 hours.
4. When the sample has dried to constant weight, obtain the weight of cup and dry soil.
5. Compute the water content. The difference between weight of wet soil plus cup and
weight of dry soil plus cup is the weight of water (Ww). Also compute the weight of dry
soil (Ws) .
6. To determine the water content ( WC) :

WC = Ww x 100
Ws

Water Content Determination

Soil Sample_________________ Test No.___________

Location ___________________ Date _____________
Boring No. _________________ Tested by__________
Sample No._________________ Checked by________
Weight of tin can (g)
Weight of wet soil (g)
Weight of tin can+wet soil (1)
Weight of tin can+dry soil (2)
Weight of dry soil (3)
Water content (WC) (%)

WC (%) = (1) (2) x 100

(3)

Observations
Conclusions