Soil Classification

Duration: 7 min. 20 s

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Objectives
To develop a systematic way to
describe and classify soils;

To group soils of similar geotechnical

characteristics; and

To assign symbols.

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Major Soil Groups

Cohesive Granular soils or

soils Cohesionless soils

Clay Silt Sand Gravel Cobble Boulder

0.002 0.075 2.36 63 200

Grain size (mm)

Fine grain Coarse grain

soils soils
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Grain Size Distribution

Significance of GSD:
To know the relative proportions of
different grain sizes.

An important factor influencing the

geotechnical characteristics of a coarse
grain soil.

Not important in fine grain soils.

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Grain Size Distribution

Determination of GSD:
In coarse grain soils ... By sieve
analysis
In fine grain soils ... By hydrometer
analysis
hydrometer

stack of sieves

sieve shaker

soil/water suspension

Sieve Analysis Hydrometer Analysis 5

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100

80
% Passing hydrometer sieve

60
fines sands gravels

40

D10 = 0.013 mm
20
D
30
D30 = 0.47 mm
D60 = 7.4 mm
0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100

Grain size (mm)

Grain Size Distribution Curve

can find % of gravels, sands, fines

define D10, D30, D60.. as above.
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Well or Poorly Graded Soils

Well Graded Soils Poorly Graded Soils

Wide range of grain sizes present
Gravels: Cc = 1-3 & Cu >4
Sands: Cc = 1-3 & Cu >6
Others, including two special cases:
(a) Uniform soils grains of same size
(b) Gap graded soils no grains in a
specific size range

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Relative Density (Dr)

Measure of how densely the grains are
packed in a coarse grain soil in %.
0 100

Loosest Densest

emax e
Dr
emax emin

Also known as density index (ID).

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Granular Soil
Consistencies
As per AS1726 - 1993
Relative Density (%) Consistency Term

0-15 Very loose

15-35 Loose

35-65 Medium dense

65-85 Dense

85-100 Very dense

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Atterberg Limits
Border line water contents, separating the
different states of a fine grained soil

water content
0 Shrinkage Plastic Liquid
limit limit limit

brittle- semi- plastic liquid

solid solid

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Atterberg Limits
Liquid Limit (wL or LL):
Clay flows like liquid when w > LL

Plastic Limit (wP or PL):

Lowest water content where the clay is still plastic

Shrinkage Limit (wS or SL):

At w<SL, no volume reduction on drying
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Plasticity Index (PI)

Range of water content over which the soil
remains plastic

Plasticity Index = Liquid Limit Plastic Limit

water content
0 Shrinkage Plastic Liquid
limit limit limit

plastic 12
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Classifying Fines
Purely based on LL and PI
Intermediate plasticity

60 Low High
plasticity plasticity
Plasticity Index

)
40 i ne -20
L L
Clays A- 3(L
= 0.7
PI
20 Silts

0
0 20 35 50 100

Liquid Limit 13
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AS 1726 1993
Classification
coarse grain soils fine grain soils
% of fines
0 5 12 50 YB 100
XY
e.g., SM e.g., CH

XA
XA-XY
e.g., GP
e.g., GP-GC

X: Coarse Y: Fines A: Gradation B: Plasticity

G = Gravel M = Silts W = well graded H = LL > 50
S = Sands C = Clays P = poorly graded I = 35 < LL < 50
L = LL < 35
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Summary
Sieve analysis for coarse grain soils
Hydrometer analysis - for fine grain
soils
Classifycoarse by GSD and
fines from Atterberg limits (PI-LL chart)

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