Soil investigation

• Introdution
• Soil is formed by weathering of rocks
• Physical weathering: due to action of wind, water or tempature
• Chemical weathering: structural arrangement of mineral in parent rock
is changed partially or completely. Water, oxygen, corbondioxide plays
main role in chemical weathering. It results in formation of clay
minerals.
 Types
Residual soil: weathering of underlying rock.
Colluvial soil: soil deposited after some movement or transportation from its place of
origin is called colluvial. Transporting agent is mainly gravity. Landslides, rockslides,
falls, debris slides, mudslides.
Alluvial soil: soil transported by water over considerable distance and then deposited is
alluvial soil.
Morainic soil: soil deposition by glacial action. Soil are confined to relatively high
altitude in the Himalayas.
 Permeability
• A material which contains continuous voids is called permeable.
• Colluvium soil contain large voids and have high permeability.
• Well graded soil is less permeable.
• Poorly graded soil is highly permeable.
• High permeable- high seepage- less strength of soil and vice versa.
 Grading

• Well graded soil: Less permeable

and high strength.
• Poor graded soil: High permeable
and low strength
 Anisotropy

• Anisotropy is another factor that favours resistance of soil to load stresses.

• Two types: vertical anisotropy and lateral anisotropy.
• It is vertical when there is a major discontinuity such as a thick layer of fine
material like fine sand, silt and clay interstratified into coarser material.
• Alluvium and fluvio glacial deposits-vertical anisotropy.
• Colluvium, glacial and fluvio glacial deposits-lateral anisotropy.
• The probability of lateral anisotropy is less in alluvium and residual deposits.
• And vertical anisotropy is less in colluvium and residual deposits.
Cohesion
 Soil classification (USCS)
• Coarsed grained soil: if more than 50% of soil retained on 0.075mm if sieve.
gravel: more than 50% retained on sieve 4.75mm
sand: more than 50% passinf from sieve 4.75mm
notation:GW,GP,GM,GC,SW,SP,SM,SC
• Fined grained soil: more than 50% soil passing from 0.075mm sieve
• Two types of fine grained soil: low plastic and high plastic on the basis of
plasticity.
• If LL is less than 50, low plastic: ML, CL, OL.
• If LL is greater than 50, high plastic: MH, CH, OH.
 Properties of soil
index properties

• Soil grain properties: properties of the individual particles of which

the soil is composed of and are independent of the manner of soil
formation. These properties can obtained from distributed samples.
Useful in for soil indentification and soil classification.
• Soil aggregates properties:depend on the structure and arrangement
of the particles in the soil mass. This gives strength, compressibility
and permeability.
 Sieve analysis
• A sieve analysis is a practice or procedure used to assess the particle size
distribution. For the particles finer than 0.074mm size needs a
hydrometer analysis for the determination of grain size distribution of the
next pore.
• Result of grain size analysis is presented in the form of a curve plotted in
semi-log scale. The percentage finer than certain value is plotted as
ordinate to a natural scale while sieve size is plotted as abscissa to a
logarithmic scale.
• A plot of this type has the advantage that materials of equal uniformity
are represented by curves of identical shapes whether the soil is coarsed
of fine grained
 Cofficient of uniformity
The degree of uniformity of a soil is expressed by a number called
coefficient of uniformity and is given by:
Cu=D60/D10
where,
D60=dia of particles corresponding to 60% fines.
 Cofficient of curvature
This term is also used to determine whether a soil is uniform or well
graded and given by:
Cc=sq of D30/(D10xD60)
In well graded gravel, Cu is greater than 4, and Cc is between 1 and 3.
in well graded sand, Cu is greater than 6 and Cc is bet 1 and 3.
 Soil aggregates properties

• Relative density: most important soil aggregates properties of coarsed

grained soil is relative density. It is used to describe compactness of
non cohesive soil.
D=((emax-e)/(eman-emin))*100
• Consistency of soil: most important soil aggregates properties of fine
grained soil. Physical state of fine grained soil with a particular water
content is known as its consistency. This terms denotes the degree of
firmness of soil. It is influenced by clay mineral and organic
matgerials. Depending upon water content, soil can have various
states: liquid state, plastic state, semi solid state, solid state.
 Determination of consistency limits

• Liquid limit: material passing through 0.425mm sieve,prepared paste is placed in cup
and leveled horizontally,the handle of the liquid limit device is rotated at the rate of
two rev per sec,the number of blows req to close the bottom of the groove through a
distance of 13mm is recorded,water content is determined and a graph is plotted bet
wc and logarithm of the number of blows,liquid limit is th water content at which 25
blows are req to close the bottom of the groove over a distance of 13mm.
• Plastic limit
• Shrinkage limit: a remoulded soil sample fot the determination of shrinkage limit is
prepared with content above the liquid limit and then it is allowed to dry in an oven.
shrinkage limit =(Ww/Ws)*10
 Field identificarion of soil
• By a naked eye
• Dispersion test: shaking a soil sample and if the material settle down
within a min, it is sand and if it takes more than 15 min, it is silt.
• Shaking test: in shaking test:
if silt is present is present, due to it high permeability
water will appear on surface of the pat.
if it is clay, due to its low permeability, an shaking,
water willnot come to the surface and the surface
will be dull
 Field identification of soil
• Dispersion test: same as that of above for distinguish bet clay and silt
• If it is soil, it will take anywhere from 15 to one hour to settle down.In
case of predominantly clay, it will form a suspension which will remain
as such for hours and may be for days, unless the material is allowed
to flocculate by adding some floccuting chemical.
• Ribbon test: clay can hold its own weight upto 30cm of dai 3mm.
• Wet and manipulated strength test:
• If soapy touch is felt, the soil is clayey.if the soil is clay, it sticks to the fingers and dries
slowly.
• If roughness is experienced, the soil is sand.
• When the specimen is squeezed bet the fingers and if water comes out, the soil is silt. If
the soil is silt, it dries quickly, and when dry, it can be easily dusted off the fingers leaving
only a stain.
•
 Crumbling test
After removing the particles larger than 0.425mm, a pat of the soil is
molded to the consistency of putty after adding some water. The pat is
then dried completely in the sun, in the air or in oven. Breaking and
crumbling between the fingers, the dry strength increases with
increasing plasticity i.e its clay content.
A low dry strength indicates silt, rock flour or silty or sandy silt. The
sand feel gritty when powdered. A medium dry strength indicates low
to medium plastic inorganic clay. A high dry strength indicates highly
plastic, inorganic clay.