Experiment No.

3
Objective:- To determine the Liquid Limit and Plastic Limit of fine-grained (Bentonite) soil as
per ASTM D4318.

Introduction:-

Apparatus Required:-

1. Casagrande Apparatus with grooving tool.

2. Spatula

3. Wash bottle containing distilled water.

4. Balance

5. Oven

6. Glass plate for rolling thread about 45 cm square and 10 mm thick.

7. Rod 3mm in diameter and 10cm long.

Procedure:-

For Liquid Limit

1. Take 250 gm of soil sample passing 425micron sieve into a dish.

2. Add distilled water into the soil and mix it thoroughly to form a uniform paste.

3. Adjust the height of fall of the Casagrande apparatus to 10mm and place the portion of the
paste in the cup and spread it with a few strokes of the spatula.

4. Trim it horizontally and return the excess of soil to the dish.

5. Using the grooving tool, cut a groove along the centerline of the soil, so that clean, sharp
groove of proper dimension is formed.

6. Lift and drop the cup by turning crank at the rate of two revolutions per second until the
two halves of soil come in contact with each other for a length of about 13mm and record the
number of blows.

7. Take a portion of soil from the cup for moisture content determination.
8. Repeat the test with different moisture contents at least four times.

For Plastic Limit

1. Take 20 gm of soil sample passing 425micron sieve into a dish.

2. Add distilled water into the soil and mix it thoroughly to form a uniform paste.

3. Prepare several ellipsoidal shaped soil masses by squeezing the soil between fingers. Take
one of the soil masses and roll it on the glass plate using palm.

4. The pressure of rolling should be just enough to make a thread of uniform diameter
throughout its length. Continue rolling until the diameter of the thread is 3mm.

5. If the thread does not crumble at a diameter of 3mm, kneed the soil together to a uniform
mass and re-roll.

6. Continue the process until the thread crumbles when the diameter is 3mm.

7. Collect the pieces of the crumbled thread for moisture content determination.

Results:-

For liquid limit

Sr. No. Weight of Weight of Weight of No. of weight Weight Water

Container container + container + soil blows of of Soil content
(a) soil sample (b) sample after water Solid
oven drying (c) (b-c) (c-a)
1 10.27 20.09 13.16 45 6.93 2.89 2.398
2 11.25 23.03 14.52 37 8.51 3.27 2.602
3 15.37 26.45 17.89 19 8.56 2.52 3.397
 4 11.88 19.49 13.78 24 5.71 1.9 3.005
5 13.67 24.26 16.08 20 8.18 2.41 3.394

4.000

3.500

3.000
Water content

2.500

2.000

1.500

1.000

0.500

0.000
10 100
Log- Number of blows

Liquid Limit of soil sample = 311.41 %

For Plastic Limit

Wt. of Wt. of sample Wt. of sample Weight of Weight of soil Water

Container + container + container Water solid Content
(gm) (gm) after oven
drying
(gm)
12.98 23.06 20.55 2.51 7.57 0.332

Plastic Limit of soil sample = 33.2%

Plasticity Index = Liquid limit – Plastic limit

= 311.41-33.2 = 278.21%

Discussion:-