Report

RELATIONSHIP OF FINE CONTENT OF SOIL WITH PERMEABILITY &

ATTERBERG LIMITS
 Group Members
Asad Altaf 2019317796
Shehryar 2019319399
Umair Nawaz 2019319692
Kanwar Kashif 2019318630
Adil Nawaz 2019320032
Table Of Content

Introduction
Objective
Literature Review
Effect of Fine Content on Permeability
Effect of Fine Content on Atterberg’s Limits
Conclusion
Refrences
Introduction
Civil Engineers build structures like buildings, highways, bridges, dams, tunnels etc. These
structures are constructed in or on the surface of earth. Stability of these structures depends
upon the soil at site (Laskar & Pal, 2017). Soil properties depends upon the rock type, its mineral
constituent and climatic conditions of study area (Roy & Bhalla, 2017).
 To check the suitability of soil to be used as foundation or as construction materials, its
properties are required to be assessed. The geotechnical evaluation of subsoil condition of a site
is necessary in generating relevant data inputs for the design and construction of foundations
for proposed structures (Nwankwoala & Warmate, 2014).
Introduction
Permeability is an important physical property of soil whose understanding is essential in
settlement, seepage and stability analyses. The failure due to seepage through a dam body and/or
foundation accounts for almost 30% of total failures (Khan, et al., 2019). A good knowledge of
soil permeability is needed for estimating the quantity of seepage under dams and dewatering to
facilitate underground construction (F.Elhakim, 2016).
When the foundations of any structure are constructed on compressible soil, it leads to
settlement. The properties of the soil such as plasticity, compressibility or strength of the soil
always affect the design in the construction. Lack of understanding of the properties of the soil
can lead to the construction errors.
There is not much laboratory work on relationship between fine content in soil and permeability
& consistency limits. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of fines content on the permeability
and consistency limits of soil.
Objectives:
Literature Review
Permeability
Permeability can be defined as the ability of a porous mass to allow passage of
water through the medium. The amount, distribution, and movement of water in soil have an
important role on the properties and behavior of soil.

Hydraulic Conductivity
The Hydraulic Conductivity is the factor of proportionality in Darcy's flow equation. It is a
function of both the fluid and the porous medium through which the fluid is flowing.
Permeability variation with Fine Content
The engineer should know the principles of fluid flow, as groundwater conditions are frequently
encountered on construction projects.

(Khan, et al., 2019)

Lawrencepur Sand (LS) had a

maximum permeability value of
4.63 × 10-3 cm/sec, whereas for
Chenab River (CS) and Ravi River
(RS), the observed values were
2.14 × 10-3 cm/sec and 1.98 × 10-
3 cm/sec respectively.
 Permeability variation with Fine Content
Computer software “IBM SPSS Version 22” was used
IBM SPSS Statistics (V22.0. 2016, IBM Corp, Armonk,
NY, USA) for carrying out linear regression analysis to
develop a correlation.

{k = 0.012D10 + 0.002D50 - 0.001 γd + 0.002 }(cm/ sec)

An 8.5% residual standard error of estimate (RSE) was

found.
 (Putera, Pramusandi, & Damianto, 2017)
Clayshale in natural condition using falling head
test in laboratory and in situ test, is an impermeable.

Test results show that the effect of cementation

would lead to an increase with clay content, and
cause a decrease in permeability value.
 (Belkhatir, Arab, Della, & Schanz, 2014)
log(k)= -0.18(Fc)-4.93 (Dr= 20% & R2=0.97)
log(k)= -0.21(Fc)-5.51 (Dr= 91% & R2=0.98)
Atterberg’s Limits variation with Fine Content

(Elmashad, 2018)
 (Elmashad, 2018)
1. A gradual increase in Atterberg’s limits of the used plastic mixture was shown by increasing
the mixing ratio of the swelling soils between 4–20% to the natural siliceous sand.
2. The maximum Atterberg’s limits of the plastic mixtures were noticed for the bentonite
mixtures.
(Putera, Pramusandi, & Damianto, 2017)

LL = 0.72 % Clay + 3.24

(Putera, Pramusandi, & Damianto, 2017)

PI = 0.74 (LL – 16.2)

The equation indicates similarity
geological characteristic because
the line of equation exhibits more
or less closing to parallel with the
“A” line Plasticity Chart for
USCS or Unified Soil
Classification System.
Conclusion:
 With the increase in fine content in soil, permeability of soil decreases.
 Analysis showed that the equation developed in this research (Khan, et al., 2019) is very much suitable for soils
of local formations.
 It was found that this equation predicted better with fine-grained soils (hydraulic conductivity value less than 3 ×
10-3 cm/sec). This equation is better for higher ranges of fine content because for lower ranges of fine content
empirical correlation Mujtaba, Kozeny–Carman and Hazen.
 It can be concluded from (Belkhatir, Arab, Della, & Schanz, 2014) that with increase of fine content, void
between soil particles decreases that causes the hydraulic conductivity to decrease.
 (Putera, Pramusandi, & Damianto, 2017) concludes that permeability of soil decreases with increase in clay
content in soil like clayshale due to cementation of soil particles.
 It can be found out from (Elmashad, 2018) that increasing the fine content effects the plasticity of soil. Which in
turn decreases the permeability of that soil.
 References
Belkhatir, M., Arab, A., Della, N., & Schanz, T. (2014). Laboratory Study on the Hydraulic Conductivity and Pore Pressure of
Sand Silt Mixtures. Marine Georesources & Geotechnology, 106-122.

Elmashad, M. e. (2018). Improving the geotechnical behavior of sand through cohesive admixtures. Water Science , 67-78.
F.Elhakim, A. (2016). Estimation of soil permeability. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 2631-2638.

Khan, T. A., Farooq, K., Muhammad, M., Khan, M. M., Shah, S. A., Shoaib, M., . . . Raza, S. S. (2019). The Effect of Fines on
Hydraulic Conductivity of Lawrencepur, Chenab and Ravi Sand. MDPI, 13.

Laskar, A., & Pal, D. S. (2017). Geotechnical characteristics of two different soils and their mixture and relationships between
parameters. EJGE , 2821-2832.

Nwankwoala, H., & Warmate, T. (2014). Geo-technical Assessment of Foundation Conditions of a Site in Ubima, Ikwerre Local
Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria. International Journal of Engineering Research and Development, 50-63.
References
Putera, A. M., Pramusandi, S., & Damianto, B. (2017). Identification and classification of clayshale
characteristic and some considerations for slope stability. African Journal of Environmental
Science and Technology, 163-197. doi:10.5897/AJEST2014.1792

Roy, S., & Bhalla, S. K. (2017). Role of Geotechnical Properties of Soil on Civil Engineering
Structures. Resources and Environment, 103-109.