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CH-2
LECTURE TWO
Physical Characteristics of
Soil Soils
Mechanics-I 1 2

Soil Formation …Soil Formation

 Soils are formed from the physical and chemical  Marine soils: soils deposited in a marine
weathering of rocks. environment.
 Residual soils: soils that remain at the site of  Loess: wind blown, uniform, fine-grained soil.
weathering.
 Alluvial soils, also called fluvial soils: soils that were
transported by rivers and streams.
 Glacial soils: soils that were transported by glaciers
(large body of ice moving slowly down a slope).
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Soil Types

 In the most common geotechnical cases, soils are

classified into four based on their texture as: gravels, Course grained soils
sands, silts and clays.
 Gravels and sands are grouped as coarse grained
soils while silts and clays are grouped as fine grained
soils.
 The characteristics of coarse grained soils is highly
dependent on their particle size, while characterizing Fine grained soils
fine grained soils need further information like their
mineral content.
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…Soil Types

 The main groups of crystalline minerals that make up

clays are kaolinite, illite, and montmorillonite.

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Surface Forces and Adsorbed Water …Surface Forces and Adsorbed Water

 The surface area per unit mass (specific surface) of
sands is typically 0.01 m2 per gram, while for clays it
is as high as 1000 m2 per gram (montmorillonite).
 Because of their large surfaces, surface forces
significantly influence the behavior of fine-grained
soils compared to coarse-grained soils.
 The surface charges on fine-grained soils are
negative (anions). These negative surface charges
attract cations and the positively charged side of
water molecules from surrounding water.
 Consequently a thin film or layer of water, called
adsorbed water, is bonded to the mineral surface.
 The thin film or layer of water is known as the diffuse
double layer.

Comparison of Coarse and Fine

Soil Fabric
 During deposition, the mineral particles are arranged
into structural frameworks that we call soil fabric.
 Two common types of soil fabric are flocculated and
dispersed.
Grained Soils for Engineering Use
Coarse Grained Soils
They have relatively good load bearing capacity
They have good drainage qualities
Their strength and volume change
characteristics are not significantly affected by
change in moisture conditions
Fine Grained Soils
They have relatively poor load bearing
capacity
They are practically impermeable
Their strength and volume change
characteristics are affected by change in
moisture conditions

They are practically incompressible when They are prone to settlement due to
dense, but significant volume change can occur moisture movement
when they are loose

The engineering properties of coarse-grained The engineering properties of fine-grained

soils are controlled mainly by the grain size of soils are controlled by mineralogical factors
the particles and their structural arrangement rather than grain size

Phase Relationship
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…Phase Relationships
The solid phase may be mineral, organic
matter, or both.
The spaces between the solids (soil particles)
are called voids and are filled with liquids or
gases or both where water is the predominant
liquid and air is the predominant gas.
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Phase Relationships
 In order to understand how a given soil is going to
behave when loaded, it helps to know how many
“voids” are in it.
 Soil is composed of solids, liquids and gases(air).
…Phase Relationships
 The soil water is commonly called pore water and
plays a very important role in the behavior of soils
under load.
 If all the voids are filled with water, the soil is
saturated.
 Otherwise, the soil is unsaturated.
 If the voids are filled with air the soil is said to be dry.
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…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

 Useful Weight-Volume Relationships
 Phase Diagrams

…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

 The physical properties of soils are affected by the
relative proportions of each of these phases.
 The total volume of the soil is the sum of the volume
of solids (Vs), volume of water (Vw), and the volume
of air (Va), that is:
V  V s  V w  V a  V s  Vv
 The weight of the soil is the sum of the weight of
solids (Ws), and weight of water (Ww). The weight of
air is negligible
W  Ws  W w
 The following definitions have been established to
describe the proportion of each constituent in soil.
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…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

1. Water content (w) is the ratio, often expressed by 2. Void ratio (e) is the ratio of the volume of void
percentage, of the weight of water to the weight of space to the volume of solids.
solids.
Vv
W e 
w  w 100% Vs
Ws

…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

3. Specific Volume (V’) is the volume of soil per unit 4. Porosity (n) is the ratio of the volume of voids to
volume of solids. the total volume. Porosity is usually expressed as a
percentage.
V Vv
V'  1 e n
Vs V
 Porosity and void ratio are related by the expression,

e
n
1 e
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…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

5. Specific gravity (Gs) is the ratio of the weight of the 6. Degree of saturation (S) is the ratio, often
soil solids to the weight of water of equal volume: expressed as a percentage, of the volume of water
to the volume of voids:
Ws
Gs  Vw wG s
Vs  w S   or Se  wG s
Vv e
 The specific gravity of soils ranges from
approximately 2.6 to 2.8.  If S = 1 or 100%, the soil is saturated. If S = 0, the soil
 For most problems, Gs can be assumed, with little is dry. It is practically impossible to obtain a soil with
error, to be equal to 2.7. S = 0.

…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

7. Unit weight is the weight of a soil per unit volume.  Special Cases
We will use the term bulk unit weight to denote the a. Saturated unit weight (S = 1):
unit weight of a soil:
W  G s  Se   Gs  e 
     w  sat    w
V  1 e   1  e 
b. Dry unit weight (S = 0):

Ws  Gs  
d     w 
V 1  e  1 w
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…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

 Special Cases 8. Relative Density (Dr) is an index that quantifies the

c. Effective or buoyant unit weight is the weight of degree of packing between the loosest (Dr = 0%)
a saturated soil, surrounded by water, per unit and densest (Dr = 100%) possible state of coarse-
weight of soil: grained soils as determined by experiments:
e max  e
 G  1 Dr  =
 '   sat   w   s  w e max  e min
 1  e 

…Phase Relationships …Phase Relationships

8. Relative Density (Dr) 9. Swell factor (SF) or free swell factor is the ratio of
the volume of excavated material to the volume of
• Relative density is only applicable to course
in situ material (sometimes called borrow pit
grained soils (i.e., sands and gravels). Not silts material or bank material):
and clays!
• A lot of correlation are made with Dr including
strength, settlement, permeability, etc.
• Typical natural soils seldom have Dr < 20 to 30%.
• Difficult to densify a soil in the field to Dr > 85%.