SEDIMENTATION

ANALYSIS
SEDIMENTATION ANALYSIS
 Wet Mechanical/Sedimentation Analysis: Carried out with
soil fractions finer than 75µ kept in suspension in a liquid
medium, generally water.
 Analysis is based upon Stoke’s Law: Velocity at which
grains/ Particles settle out of suspension (all other factors
remains unchanged) depends upon shape, weight and size
of the particles.
 Soil particles are assumed to be spherical and of same
Specific Gravity. Therefore, coarser particles will settle
earlier than the finer ones.
 v is the terminal velocity of sinking of the spherical
particle.
SEDIMENTATION ANALYSIS

PRINCIPAL OF SEDIMENTATION ANALYSIS

SENDIMENTATION ANALYSIS
 Putting γs = Gs γw

 If diameter ‘D’ is in ‘mm’

SEDINENTATION ANALYSIS
 If a particle of diameter ‘D’ mm falls through a height of
‘He’ cm in ‘t’ minutes:

or

or

Where value of ‘F’ is constant having

 SEDIMENTATION
ANALYSIS
 Hydrometer Analysis and Pipette Analysis are the two
types of Sedimentation Analysis.
 In both types of analysis suitable amount of oven dried soil
sample having soil particles smaller than 75µ are mixed with
the given volume of distilled water.
 Mixture is shaken thoroughly and the jar containing this
mixture is kept vertical throughout the test duration.
 Soil particles are assumed to be uniformly distributed in the
suspension.
 After the time interval ‘t’ if a soil sample is extracted from
depth He from the top of the soil suspension; only those
fractions will remain in the suspension which have not
settled during this time interval.
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 SEDIMENTATION
ANALYSIS
 Diameter of the particles finer than the settled ones at any
time interval is determined from Eq.

 Greater the time interval ‘t’ allowed for soil suspension to

settle, finer is the soil fractions retained in the suspension
at this height He.
 Sampling at different time interval at this depth He will
give the content of soil fractions of different diameter.
 Sampling at different time interval would give the soil
fractions of different sizes.
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 SEDIMENTATION
ANALYSIS
 Percentage finer ‘N’ than the diameter ‘D’ at any time
interval still in soil suspension is calculated from Eq.

Where,
N = Percentage finer than the diameter ‘D’
MD = Mass per ml of all the fractions smaller than
the diameter ‘D’.
Md = Dry mass of all the particles put in the
suspension.
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 LIMITATIONS
 It is based on the following assumptions:
1. Soil fractions are spherical
2. Soil fraction settle independent of the other fractions.
The neighboring fractions do not have any effect on
its velocity of settlement.
3. The walls of the jar do not affect the settlement.
 In actual practice, fine soil fractions are not truly
spherical. These are thin platelets and do not settle out of
the suspension in the same manner and at the same rate as
the smooth spheres. Therefore, the sedimentation analysis
gives the particle size equivalent diameter.

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 LIMITATIONS
 For the validity of law the maximum particle size is
limited to 0.2mm beyond this size the liquid tends to
develop a turbulent motion near the boundaries of the soil
particle.
 For particles smaller than 0.0002 mm(0.2 micron)
equivalent diameter, Brownian movement affects the
settlement and Stoke’s Law no longer remained valid.
 To calculate diameter of particles, average specific
gravity of soil is assumed but in actual it varies.
 Settlement of particles is influenced by the surrounding
particles in suspension. Liquid is not of infinite extent.
 Particles in jar, falling near its wall get affected.
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