Introduction

A sieve analysis is a practice or procedure that are used to assess the particle size
distribution of a granular material. The size distribution is often of critical importance to the way
the material performs in use. A sieve analysis can be performed on any type of non-organic or
organic granular materials including sands, crushed rock, clays, granite, coal, soils, a wide range
of manufactured powders, grain and seeds, down to a minimum size depending on the exact
method. Being such a simple technique of particle sizing, it is probably the most common.
The suitability of a soil for a particular use in construction is often dependent on the
distribution of gain sizes in the soil mass. There are two tests used to analyse the particle – size
distribution in a soil. One of these methods is the sieve and analyse. The test is a fundamental
requirement for identification and for specification compliance testing for coarse soils.
Theory
A sieve analysis (or gradation test) is a practice or procedure used (commonly used in civil
engineering) to assess the particle size distribution (also called gradation) of a granular material.
The size distribution is often of critical importance to the way the material performs in use. A
sieve analysis can be performed on any type of non-organic or organic granular materials
including sands, crushed rock, clays, granite, feldspars, coal, soil, a wide range of manufactured
powders, grain and seeds, down to a minimum size depending on the exact method. Being such a
simple technique of particle sizing, it is probably the most common.
To find the percent of aggregate passing through each sieve, first find the percent retained in
each sieve. To do so, the following equation is used,
%Retained = (Wsieve/Wtotal) ×100%
Where: WSieve is the weight of aggregate in the sieve
WTotal is the total weight of the aggregate
The next step is to find the cumulative percent of aggregate retained in each sieve. To do
so, add up the total amount of aggregate that is retained in each sieve and the amount in the
previous sieves. The cumulative percent passing of the aggregate is found by subtracting the
percent retained from 100%.
%Cumulative Passing = 100% - %Cumulative Retained
Objective
The sieve analysis determines the grain size distribution curve of soil sample by passing
them through a stack of sieves of decreasing mesh opening sizes and by measuring the weight
retained on each sieve.

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 Apparatus

Sieve Aperture Aggregates

Sizes

Sieve Shaker

Balance

Metal Tray

Metal Containers

Spade

Scoop

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 Procedure

1. Bring the aggregate to the dry condition before weighting and sieving.
2. The aggregate is separated into four parts.
3. Mixed together any two parts of aggregate to become a sample.
4. Check that the test sieve are dry and clean before use.
5. The sieve placed to form a nest of sieves, the large size being on top of lower size sieve
size. The receiving pan is placed at the bottom. Fix this nest of sieves in a sieve shaker.
6. An amount of aggregate is placed on top of the sieve.
7. The sieve shaker is switched on for a few minutes.
8. The material retained on each sieve (5mm, 10mm, 14mm, 20mm) is weighted.
9. The real weight of material on each sieve is get.

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 Data Collection and Recording

SIEVE
SIZE
BS SIEVES WT. RETAINED (g) % RETAINED % PASSING 2

20.0 MM 660 
14.0 MM 3190 
10.0 MM 690 
5.0 MM 50 
PAN 10
TOTAL 4600

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 Data Analysis (Calculations & Results)
SIEVE
SIZE
BS SIEVES WT. RETAINED (g) % RETAINED % PASSING 2

20.0 MM 660 14.35 85.7 

14.0 MM 3190 69.35 16.4 
10.0 MM 690 15.00 1.4 
5.0 MM 50 1.09 0.01 
PAN 10 0.21 0
TOTAL 4600

Calculation for % retained

WT . Retained
Formula : × 100
Total

For 20 mm, For 14 mm,

660 3190
× 100 = 14.35% × 100 = 69.35%
4600 4600

For 10 mm, For 5 mm, For PAN,

690 50 10
× 100 = 15.0% × 100 = 1.09% × 100 = 0.21%
4600 4600 4600

Calculation for % passing

For 20mm, For 14mm,
100% - 14.35% = 85.7% 85.7% - 69.35% = 16.4%

For 10mm, For 5mm, For PAN,

16.4% - 15% = 1.4% 1.4% - 1.09% = 0.3% 0.21% - 0.21% = 0

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 Discussion/Conclusion

It is evident that sieves can be used to separate both fine and coarse aggregate into
different particle sizes. The number sieves describe what size aggregate fall through to the next.
After weighting of each sieve samples, we do some calculations to determine percentage (%) of
retained aggregate, cumulative (%) aggregate retained and (%) aggregate passing of each sieve.
In conclusion, we can know the type of soil at the place with use the Sieve Analysis Test
and depend to the sample of soil trough the sieve. Depend to size of sieve (mm) and percentage
passing (%), we can know that the percentage passing through the sieve from 20mm to the
bottom pam is decreases.

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 References

1. C i v i l E n g i n e e r i n g L a b o r a t o r y 2 R e p o r t , C 3 0 0 3 .

2. Sieve Analysis, Uploaded by Ammar Azmi on Dec 02, 2010. Retrieved from
https://www.scribd.com/doc/44511490/Sieve-Analysis

3. Sieve-Analysis-Lab-Report.docx, uploaded by John Pierce Gumapac on Sep 28.

Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/325622483/Sieve-Analysis-Lab-
Report-docx

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Appendix