CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CC304 GEOTECHNICAL 1

NO. PARTICAL WORK TITLE OF PARTICAL WORK OBJECTIVE THEORY :

: : : DETERMINATION OF SPECIFIC GRAVITY Determining specific gravity of a soil sample for weight-volume relationships.

The Specific Gravity, Gs of a soil is the ratio between the unit masses of soil particles and water. Gs is useful for determining weight-volume relationships.

Equipment

: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi.

The equipment for determination of specific gravity includes: Volumetric flasks (100ml) No.7 Sieve (2.36mm) Rubber mortar and pastel Vacuum pump Distilled deaired water Thermometer

PROCEDURE : 1) Prepare a dry and clean volumetric flask and measure its weight. (W1) 2) Take a sample of 100g 120g of air-dried soil and place it into a mortar. Use the pastel to break the soil grains into pieces small enough to go into the flasks. 3) Put the sample into a 2.36mm sieve and the sample passing through the sieve is to be used for the test. The mass for the sample to be tested bust be between 5-10g. 4) Put some of the soil into the volumetric flask and measure the weight. (W2) 5) Pour the distilled deaired water into the flask until all soil is soaked. Place the flask into the desiccator vacuum. 6) Reduce the air pressure to 2cm mercury. Be careful so that the soil-water mixture does not boil. Remove the vacuum after all the air in the mixture is released.
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CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CC304 GEOTECHNICAL 1

7) Fill up the flask with distilled water and place into the vacuum. Repeat step 6. 8) Measure the weight of the flask (W3) 9) Empty the flask and fill up with distilled water. Place it into the dessicator vaccum and repeat step 6. Measure the weight of the flas with the distilled water. (W 4) record the temperature of the water during the test. 10) Repeat the test to calculate additional values of Gs until the values of Gs are within 2% of each other. *NOTE The temperature of water affects its value of density, so use the prepared distilled water only. Use the correction factor to determine the specific gravity of the soil sample. Computation : Specific Gravity (Gs) Formula Gs = W2-W1 (W4-W1) (W3 W2)

For the correction of calculation based on the water temperature, the value of G s obtained must be multiplied with the coefficient of temperature. (Refer to Table 2). Table 2 : Coeffient of temperature Temperature (oC) 4 15 20 25 30 35 Coefficient 1.0000 0.9999 0.9982 0.9971 0.9957 0.9941

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CC304 GEOTECHNICAL 1

RESULT : Name Reg No. Type of Colour Group Date Soil /

Test No. Mass of empty flask, W 1 (g) Mass of flask + dry soil, W 2 (g) Mass of flask + soil + water, W 3 (g) Mass of flask + water, W 4 (g) Specific Gravity, G s Average value of G s Coefficient of Temperature () Final Specific Gravity of Soil, G s

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CC304 GEOTECHNICAL 1

REVIEW QUESTIONS : 1. Define Specific Gravity of soil. 2. What are the typical values for the specific gravity for soils? 3. Can you apply the technique described in this section to measure the specific gravity of material lighter than water? 4. Why do we use vacuum while determining the specific gravity of soils> 5. What is the effect of water temperature on the determination of the specific gravity of soils? APPENDIX :

Figure 3 : Graph bearing capacity against the no. of blows /0.3m

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CC304 GEOTECHNICAL 1

CONCLUSION :

REFERENCE(S)
1. BS 1377-2:1990 Part 2