SOIL LABORATORY WORK

DR ANI MASLINA BT SALEH

SOIL LABORATORY SIMULATION
SOIL LABORATORY WORK – TEST 1
DETERMINATION OF WATER CONTENT
OVEN DRYING METHOD
METHOD OF TEST- MOISTURE CONTENT

• Common test to identify water content. The

water content is a good indication of the
strength of clay soils.

• It is defined as the ratio of the weight of

water to the weight of the dry soil grains in Weighing Scale
a soil mass.
• The standard method of determining the
moisture content is by over-drying at 105 –
110 degrees Celsius but several other
methods are available as rapid alternatives
more suitable to site conditions.

Oven
RESULT - PRESENTATION
Container no. Unit A B C
Mass of wet soil + G 875 264 326
• CALCULATIONS
container (m2)
The moisture content of the soil (m) shall be
Mass of dry soil + G 65 96 116
calculated as a percentage of the dry soil
weight, from the formula:- container (m3)

m = m2 – m3 x 100% Mass of container (m1) G 16.50 26.34 26.38

Mass of moisture (m2 – G ? ? ?
m3 – m1
m3)
Where
Mass of dry soil (m3 – G ? ? ?
m1 = mass of container
m1)
m2 = mass of container and wet soil
Moisture content ? ? ?
m3 = mass of container and dry soil w = m2 – m3 x 100% %
m3 – m1
SOIL LABORATORY WORK – TEST 2
SIEVE ANALYSIS
 2
METHOD OF TEST – SIEVE ANALYSIS
1

• This test covers the quantitative

determination of the particle size
distribution in a soil down to the
fine and size. This method shall not
be used unless it has been shown
that for the type of material under
test it gives the same result as the
method of analysis by wet sieving.
Weighing Scale
3
British standard test sieve,
5mm, 2mm, 0.60mm, 0.425mm,
0.30mm, 0.212mm, 0.150mm, 0.063mm
and appropriate receiver

Mechanical Shaker
VIDEO ON SIEVE ANALYSIS TEST BY UMP
 RESULT SIEVE ANALYSIS
Initial dry mass g Percentage Cumulative

The percentage by mass of material retained on BS test sieve Weight (g) Mass retained g retained (%) percentage
each test sieve should be calculated. The Actual Corrected passing (%)
percentage passing the 0.63 mm B.S test sieve
5 mm 537.31 537.31 0 0 100
should be obtained by difference, and checked
by weighting the amount in the receiver. The 2 mm 470.91 475.78 5 2.5 97.5
cumulative percentage (by mass of the total 1.18 mm 492.50 513.05 20 10 87.5
sample) passing each of the sieves should be 0.6 mm 480.87 527.28 46 23 64.5
calculated.
0.425 mm 453.42 489.38 36 18 46.5

Corrected mass 0.3 mm 449.38 485.22 36 18 28.5

retained = weight – actual mass retained 0.212 mm 421.29 446.01 25 125 16
0.15 mm 438.56 455.27 16 8 8
Percentage retained = Corrected x 100
Total 0.063 mm 336.07 349.73 14 7 1
Receiver pan 244.03 246.03 2 1 0

Total 200 (m1)

RESULT PRESENTATION
Particles Distribution of SwFA, Laterite Clay and Paint Sludge
Paint Sludge Laterite Clay SwFA
100

• Result from
90
the table
presented in 80

the line graph 70

Percentage Passing

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Sieve Size