TITLE: ATTERBERG LIMIT TESTS

OBJECTIVES: To determine the liquid limit, the plastic limit and the linear shrinkage and
plasticity index of the given soil sample.

INTRODUCTION
The Atterberg limits are basic measure of the critical water contents of a fine-grained soil.
When clay minerals are presents in fine grained soils, that soil can be remolded in the
presence of some moisture without crumbling. This cohesive nature is caused by the adsorbed
water surrounding the clay particles. At very low moisture content, soil behaves more like
solid and when the moisture content is very high, the soil and water may flow like a liquid.
The Atterberg limits can be used to distinguish between silt and clay, and it can
distinguish between different types of silts and clays. These distinctions in soil are used in
assessing the soils that are to have structures built on. Soils when wet retain water and some
expand in volume. The amount of expansion is related to the ability of the soil to take in
water and its structural make-up (the type of atoms present). These tests are mainly used on
clayey or silty soils since these are the soils that expand and shrink due to moisture content.
Clays and silts react with the water and thus change sizes and have varying shear strengths.
Thus these tests are used widely in the preliminary stages of designing any structure to ensure
that the soil will have the correct amount of shear strength and not too much change in
volume as it expands and shrinks with different moisture contents.

THEORY
In the early 1900s, a Swedish agricultural scientist named A. Atterberg developed a method
to describe the consistence of fine grained soils with varying moisture content. Depending on
the moisture content, the behavior of the soil was divided into four basic states: solid,
semisolid, plastic and liquid and defined the boundaries of four states in terms of limits as
follows.
Shrinkage Limit (SL) The moisture content below which no further soil volume reduction
take place. Boundary between the semi-solid and solid state.
Plastic Limit (PL) The moisture content below which the soil shows non plastic behavior.
Boundary between the plastic and semi-solid state.
Liquid Limit (LL) The moisture content below which the soil behaves as a plastic material.
At this moisture content the soil is on the verge of becoming a viscous fluid. Boundary
between the liquid and plastic state.

Water content =( (weight of water)/(weight of solid)) * 100%

The liquid limit (LL) is the water content, at which the soil has such small shear strength that
it flows to close 13 mm distance of a groove of standard width, when jarred in a specified
manner. The liquid limit is read from the flow curve as the water content at 25 blows.
(Figure 2a).
The plastic limit (PL) is the water content of the soil, at which soil begins to crumble when it
is rolled into a thread of 3 mm in diameter. Usually PL is calculated as the mean value of three
water content determinations (figure 2b).

The shrinkage limit (SL) is the water content that is just sufficient to fill the pores when the
soil is at the minimum volume, which will attain by drying. Linear shrinkage (LS), which
aids to estimate the shrinkage limit, characterizes the change in length induce by drying a
cylindrical sample of soil initially at about its liquid limit.

LS = (L L0 ) 100%
L

Where, L is the original length of the sample at about the limit and L0 is the length of dried
sample.
The amount of water, which must be added to change a soil from its plastic limit to its liquid
limit, is an indication of the plasticity of the soil. The plasticity is measured by the plasticity
index (PL), which is equal to the liquid limit minus the plastic limit.
Plasticity index (PI) = Liquid limit (LL) Plastic limit (PL)

APPARATUS

Liquid limit device and grooving tool

Large glass plate
Half cylindrical linear shrinkage mold
Distilled water
Balance (sensitive to 0.01g)
Drying oven with temperature range from 105 0C to 110 0C
Desiccators
Drying containers with lids
Mixing dish or bowl
Spatula
Sieve of No. 40

Figure 3: Liquid limit apparatus

PROCEDURE
Liquid limit determination
a) The liquid limit apparatus was calibrated to 10 mm falling height using the space
gauge on the grooving tool handle.
b) About 100 g of moist soil passing through sieve no 40 was taken and mixed it
thoroughly with distilled water and a uniform paste was formed.
c) A portion of the paste was placed in the cup of the li quid limit device and smoothed
the surface off to a maximum depth of inch.
d) The grooving tool was drawn through the sample along the symmetrical axis of the
cup, holding the tool perpendicular to the cup at the point of contact.
e) The crank handle was turned at a rate of about two revolutions per second, and
counted the blows necessary to close the groove in the soil for a distance of inch.
f) Approximately 10g of soil from near the closed groove was taken for a water content
determination.
g) The water of the soil was altered and repeated steps (b) to (f)
h) Five water content determination in the range of the ten to fifty blows was obtained.
Plastic limit determination
a) About 15g of the moist soil (soil which was used for LL test) was mixed thoroughly.
b) The soil was rolled on a glass plate with the hand until it was approximately 3mm in
diameter.
c) The step (b) was repeated with changing the water content until a 3 mm diameter
thread showed sign of crumbling.
d) Some of the crumbled material was taken for the water content determination.
e) The steps (b) to (d) was repeated and obtained three determination, average of the
three was taken as the plastic limit.

CONCLUSION
The Atterberg limits represent the water content where the consistence of a fine grained soil
is transformed from a plastic state to a liquid state and from a semisolid state to plastic state.
The quantity of water at the Atterberg limits and for the other physical properties depends on
the same, mostly compositional factors, such as the type of minerals, the amount of each
mineral, the shapes and size distribution of the particles and the pore-water composition,
which leads to the conclusion that the exactly defined relationships between the values of the
Atterberg limits and the soils other properties must exist. Liquid limit, plastic limit, and
shrinkage limit tests of ne-grained soil are indicators of the nature of its plasticity. The
difference between the liquid limit and plastic limit is called the plasticity index. Liquid limit
and plasticity index are required parameters for classication of ne-grained soils. Therefore
the objectives were determined successful in this lab.

REFERENCES

Factors affecting permeability of soils - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Why is it necessary to use distilled water in Atterberg limit tests? | Yahoo Answers.
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Available at:https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140620115142AAR6rf6.
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Liquid limit devices (Casagrande), Soil testing equipment, Controls. 2016.

Liquid limit devices (Casagrande), Soil testing equipment, Controls. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://www.controls-group.com/eng/soil-testing-equipment/liquid-limitdevices-casagrande.php.
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