CESM 413 (Tuesday)

Seatwork: Consistency of Soils

1. A saturated soil has the following characteristics: initial volume is 19.65 cc, final volume is 13.5
cc, mass of wet soil is 36g, and mass of dry soil is 25g. Determine the Shrinkage Limit and the
Shrinkage Ratio.
2. Following are the results from the liquid and plastic limit tests for a soil. Liquid Limit Test.

Number of Blows, N Moisture Content (%)

16 36.5
20 34.1
28 27.0
Plastic Limit test: PL = 12.2%
a. Draw the floe curve and obtain the liquid limit.
b. What is the plasticity index of the soil?

CESM 413 (Wednesday)

Seatwork: Classification of Soils

1. Classify the following according to the USDA textural classification system.

Particle – Size SOIL

Distribution (%) A B C D
Gravel 15 18 12 0
Sand 26 24 18 22
Silt 36 26 21 38
Clay 23 32 49 40

2. The Sieve Analysis of the following soils and the liquid and plastic limits of the fraction passing
through the No.40 are given below. Classify the soils using the AASHTO classification system and
give the group indices.

Sieve Analysis (%)

Soil Number Liquid Limit Plastic Limit
No. 10 No. 40 No. 200
1 98 80 50 38 29
2 100 92 80 56 23
3 100 88 65 37 22

3. Classify the following soils using the Unified Soil Classification system. Give group symbols and
group names.

Sieve Analysis (%)

Soil Number Liquid Limit Plastic Limit Comments
No. 4 No. 200
1 94 3 -- NP Cu = 4.48, Cc =
 1.22
2 100 77 63 25
3 100 86 55 28

CEST 412/411 (Architecture – Tuesday)

Determine the Location and Magnitude of the Maximum shear and Moment for the following simple
beam.