Principles of Geotechnical Engineering

Eighth Edition

Chapter 3
Weight-Volume
Relationships

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Student Objectives and Outline

 3.2 – Learn about weight-volume relationships for soil,

including void ratio, porosity, and moisture content
 3.3 – Know some relationships between unit weight, void
ratio, moisture content, and specific gravity
 3.4 – Learn relationships between unit weight, porosity,
and moisture content
 3.5 – Know about some other relationships for unit weight

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Student Objectives and Outline (cont.)

 3.6 – Understand relative density

 3.7 – Understand minimum and maximum void ratios and
the factors that affect them
 3.8 – Learn about some correlations relating the median
grain size to the minimum and maximum void ratios

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

3.2 Weight-Volume Relationships

 Soil is a combination of
solids, water, and air
 These three phases must
all be considered to
determine weight-volume
relationships

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Weight-Volume Relationships

 The total volume of a soil sample is:

𝑉 = 𝑉𝑠 + 𝑉𝑣 = 𝑉𝑠 + 𝑉𝑤 + 𝑉𝑎
 𝑉𝑠 is the volume of the soil solids
 𝑉𝑣 is the volume of voids in the soil, and is equal to the
sum of 𝑉𝑤 (the volume of water in the voids) and 𝑉𝑎 (the
volume of air in the voids)

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Weight-Volume Relationships (cont.)

 Assuming the weight of the air is negligible:

𝑊 = 𝑊𝑠 + 𝑊𝑤
 𝑊 is the total weight, 𝑊𝑠 is the weight of the soil solids
and 𝑊𝑠 the weight of the water in the soil

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Volume Relationships

 The void ratio (𝑒 = 𝑉𝑣 /𝑉𝑠 ) is the ratio of the volume of the

voids to the volume of the solids
 The porosity (𝑛 = 𝑉𝑣 /𝑉) is the ratio of the volume of the
voids to the total soil volume
 The degree of saturation (𝑆 = 𝑉𝑤 /𝑉𝑣 ) is the ratio of the
volume of water to the volume of voids

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Weight Relationships

 The moisture content or water content (𝑤 = 𝑊𝑤 /𝑊𝑠 ) is the

ratio of the weight of the water to the weight of the solids
 The unit weight (𝛾 = 𝑊/𝑉) is the weight of the soil per unit
volume, and is also called the moist unit weight
 The dry unit weight (𝛾𝑑 = 𝑊𝑠 /𝑉) is the weight of the soil,
excluding water, per unit volume

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

3.3 Relationships among Unit Weight, Void

Ratio, Moisture Content, and Specific Gravity

 The unit weight (𝛾) and dry unit weight (𝛾𝑑 ) may be
related to the unit weight of water (𝛾𝑤 ), void ratio,
𝑊𝑠
moisture content, and specific gravity of solids (𝐺𝑠 = )
𝑉𝑠 𝛾𝑤
1 + 𝑤 𝐺𝑠 𝛾𝑤
𝛾=
1+𝑒
𝐺𝑠 𝛾𝑤
𝛾𝑑 =
1+𝑒

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Relationships among Unit Weight, Void Ratio,

Moisture Content, and Specific Gravity (cont.)

 Void ratio is equal to:

𝐺𝑠 𝛾𝑤
𝑒= −1
𝛾𝑑
 We may relate degree of saturation, void ratio, moisture
content, and specific gravity of solids as follows:
𝑆𝑒 = 𝑤𝐺𝑠

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Relationships for Saturated Soil Samples

 A soil sample is saturated if the voids are completely filled

with water (𝑆 = 1)
 For a saturated sample:
𝐺𝑠 + 𝑒 𝛾𝑤
𝛾𝑠𝑎𝑡 =
1+𝑒
𝑒 = 𝑤𝐺𝑠

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

3.4 Relationships among Unit Weight,

Porosity, and Moisture Content

 Void ratio (𝑒) may be expressed in terms of porosity (𝑛):

𝑛
𝑒=
1−𝑛
 Using porosity instead of void ratio:
𝛾 = 𝐺𝑠 𝛾𝑤 (1 − 𝑛) 1 + 𝑤
𝛾𝑑 = 𝐺𝑠 𝛾𝑤 (1 − 𝑛)

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

3.5 Various Unit Weight Relationships

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Typical Values for Void Ratio, Moisture Content,

and Dry Unit Weight

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

3.6 Relative Density

 The relative density (𝐷𝑟 ) indicates the in situ denseness of

granular soil, by relating the void ratio of the solid to its
void ratios in its densest and loosest states
𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑒 1 − 𝑛𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑛
𝐷𝑟 = =
𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑛𝑚𝑖𝑛 1 − 𝑛

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Maximum and Minimum Dry Weight

 The maximum dry weight and minimum dry unit weight

are determined using ASTM Test Designations D-4253 and
D-4254, which measure the weight of sand to fill a mold
 For the minimum dry weight, the sand is poured loosely in
from a funnel
 For the maximum dry weight, the sand in the mold is
vibrated and a pressure is applied to the top of the sand
 The resulting values are dependent on the procedure

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

3.7 Comments on 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛

 The maximum and minimum void ratios for a granular soil

depend on several factors:
 Grain size
 Grain shape
 Grain-size distribution
 Fine contents, 𝐹𝑐 (the fraction smaller than 0.075mm)

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Comments on 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 (cont.)

 The amount of nonplastic

fines greatly influences
𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛
 This effect may be
experimentally observed by
determining 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛
for different proportions of
fine particles

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Comments on 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 (cont.)

 There are three phases as the volume of fines changes:

 The filling-of-the-void phase, where fines fill the voids
between larger particles and decrease 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛
 The transition zone between the other two phases, where
𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 remain relatively constant
 The replacement-of-solids phase, where fines displace the
larger solid particles and 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 increase

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

3.8 Correlations between 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 , 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 , and

𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 and Median Grain Size

 For clean sand, Miura et al.

observed the following
correlation:
𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 ≈ 1.62𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Correlations between 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 , 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 , and

𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 and Median Grain Size (cont.)

 Cubrinovski and Ishihara

related the difference
between 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 to
the mean grain size, 𝐷50 :
0.06
𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 0.23 +
𝐷50 𝑚𝑚

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Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Eighth Edition Das/Sobhan

Summary

 The porosity and void ratio are measures of the portion of

the soil that consists of voids
 The specific gravity of solids may be used to relate the
void ratio and moisture content to the unit weight
 The relative density is a measure of how densely packed
the soil is, using the minimum and maximum void ratios
 The median grain size is correlated to the minimum and
maximum void ratios

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