Republic of the Philippines

Western Philippines University

College of Engineering and Technology
Aborlan, Palawan

Plastic limit test

Activity no. 5

Sampled by: Del Rosario, Prince Emmel S. Sampled at: College of Engineering and Technology
Prepared use: Laboratory Source/Location: WPU-Main Campus
Tested by: Group 3 Date Sampled: Nov. 25, 2019
Supervised by: Engr. Maria Fe V. Adier Date Tested: Nov. 25, 2019
Kind of Materials: Undisturbed soil Test no: 6

I. Objectives
To determine Plastic limit of soil

II. Tools and materials

 Shovel, knife
 Fine grained soil #40 (0.425-mm opening)
 Distilled or demineralized water
 Ceramic soil mixing bowl
 Digital weighing scale
 Soil drying oven set at 110̊
 Notes, pencil
 3 empty container
 Marker
 Glass
 Rolling rod

III. Introduction

The plastic limit of a soil is the moisture content, expressed as a percentage of

the weight of the oven-dry soil, at the boundary between the plastic and semisolid
states of consistency. It is the moisture content at which a soil will just begin to crumble
when rolled into a thread 1/8 inch.

IV. Procedure

1. Pass the soil through a #40 sieve and use the fraction that passes the sieve
2. Add distilled water to make little mud balls that would stick to the wall if you threw
them.
 3. Take pea sized mud balls and roll it out onto the frosted plate to form a rod with a
diameter of 0.125-in. diameter metal rod as a reference. If the soil crumbles the first
time, add more water and repeat.
4. If the doesn’t crumble, pick it up and make another mud ball in your hands. As you do
this, you will dry the soil.
5. Repeat the process in making rod, rolling up in your hands with a ball, making a rod,
etc., until the soil crumble while you making the rod. This point the water content of the
soil is the PL. Quickly obtained its moist weight and place it in the oven for a moisture
content reading in accordance with ASTM

V. Computation

Plastic Limit
no of trial trial 1 trial 2 trial 3
mass of container in grams (g) 13.4 14.4 13.9
mass of soil + container in grams (g) 17.7 17 16.7
mass of dry soil +container in grams (g) 17.1 16.6 16.4
Mass of soil in grams (g) 4.3 2.6 2.8
mass of dry soil in grams (g) 3.7 2.2 2.5
mass of water in grams (g) 0.6 0.4 0.3
Moisture content (%) 16.216 18.182 12.000
Average 15.47

VI. Conclusion
I conclude in this laboratory activity for getting the plastic limit of our soil sample using
the soil that pass through sieve #40 we determined and compute for the plastic limit. We have
3 trials for this activity and the result for every trial which is shown in the table.

VII. Documentation