Experiment No.

6
DETERMINATION OF WATER CONTENT, UNIT WEIGHT, VOID RATIO
AND DEGREE OF SATURATION OF SOIL

I. Short discussion

II. Resources
1. Tin cup
2. Triple-beam Balance
3. Oven
4. Pycnometer
5. Bunsen burner
6. Paraffin wax
7.
III. Procedure

Note: For this experiment, coarse-grained soil sample is to be utilized to expedite the oven-drying of the sample.

Water Content Determination

1. Weigh a tin cup including its cover; identify the cover and its lid. Determine the weight of the tin cup.
2. Place a representative sample of wet soil in the cup. Determine the weight of wet soul and tin cup.
3. Place the sample in the oven for at least 3 hours.
4. When the sample has dried to constant weight, obtain the weight of cup and dry soil
5. Compute the water content. The difference between weight of wet soil plus cup and weight of dry soil plus cup is
the weight of water (Ww). Also compute the weight of dry soil (W s).
6. To determine the water content ().

 = Ww/Ws x 100

7. Repeat until three (3) trials are achieved. Determine the average moisture content.

Unit Weight Determination

1. Trim a sample of soil to about 1 ½ inches diameter and 2 to 3 inches long. Surface should be smooth and
rounded. Weigh to up to the nearest 0.1 gram.
2. Cover with a thin coating of paraffin and weigh again. Compute the volume of paraffin from weight of paraffin. The
specific gravity of paraffin is about 0.9
3. Immerse the coated sample in water in the graduated cylinder and determine its displacement. The volume of the
sample is the volume of the water displaced minus the volume of the paraffin.
4. Compute the unit weight in grams/cu. cm.

Calculations:
• The volume of the paraffin is equal to the weight of paraffin used to coat sample divided by the density of paraffin.
Density of paraffin is 0.90
 Wt. of paraffin = Wt. Soil coated with paraffin – wt. of soil uncoated with paraffin

• The volume of the paraffin—coated sample is equal to the weight in air minus the weight in water, (express the
weight in gm)
• Wet density of soil = wt of soil g/cc or kg/m
vol of soil

Specific Gravity Determination:

Calibration of Pycnometer
1. Transfer carefully the 25 gm sample to the calibrated bottle and add distilled water until about ½ full. Care must
be exercised so as not to lose any of the soil in the transfer.
2. Expel the entrapped air by boiling gently for at least 10 minutes. Roll the bottle occasionally to facilitate the
removal of air.
3. Cool the sample to room temperature or to a temperature within the range of the calibration curve of the bottle
used.

Determination of Specific Gravity

1. Fill the bottle with distilled water to the calibration mark as discussed in step 2 from calibration of bottle.
2. Dry the outside of the bottle, as in step 3, pycnometer calibration.
3. Weigh the bottle with water and soil, and record as W b.
4. Read and record the temperature of the contents to 0.1 °C, as in step 5, pycnometer calibration.
5. Repeat procedure for at least 3 trials.

Note: An alternative heating device that can be used is an electric plate stove with wire gauze.

Gs = G t (Ws)
W s + Wa – W b

Where:

Gs – Specific gravity
Gt – Specific gravity of distilled water at the temperature when
Wb was obtained (refer to Table A)
Ws – Weight of oven-dried sample
Wa – weight of bottle + water (from calibration curve)
Wb – weight of bottle + soil and water

Determination of Void Ratio and Degree of Saturation:

The void ratio can be determined from the formula shown below:

e= wGs (1+w) - 1


The degree of saturation can be determined from the formula shown below:

S = Gs/e
IV. Data Analysis
Moisture Content Determination
Description Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3
Wt of tin cup (Wc) 34 g 32 g 34 g
Wt. of tin cup + Wet Soil (Wc+ws) 96 g 120 g 104 g
Wt. of tin cup and dry soil (Wc+dc) 81.16 g 108.30 g 92.37 g
Wt. of water (Ww) 14.84 g 11.7 g 11.63 g
Wt. of dry soil (Wds) 47.16 g 76.30 g 58.37 g
Water Content () 31.47 % 15.33 % 19.92 %
Average

Unit Weight Determination

Description Description
Wt. of soil (Ws) 100 g Wt. of paraffin (Wp) 4g
Wt. of soil and paraffin 104 g Volume of paraffin (Vp) 4.44 cm3
(Ws+p)
Volume of soil+paraffin 44 g Volume of soil (Vs) 55.56 cm3
(Vs+p)
Unit weight () 17.658 KN/m3

Specific Gravity Determination

Description Description
SG of distilled water (Gt) Wt. of bottle + water (Wa)
Wt. of oven-dried Weight of bottle + soil +
sample (Ws) water (Wb)
Specific gravity of soil (Gs)

Determination of Void Ratio and Degree of Saturation

Void ratio
Degree of Saturation
V. Conclusion

VI. Recommendation

VII. Documentation