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Tuesday, Group 2

Lab #2: Plastic Limit of Soil

Israa Alkhazraji
July 16, 2018
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Plastic Limit of Soil Test

Table of Contests

1. Abstract and Introduction ………………………………........... pg. 3

2. Procedure ……………………………………………………… pg. 4
3. Experimental Apparatus………………………………………… pg. 5
4. Example of Calculation ………………………………………… pg. 6
5. Results of Experiment………………………………………….. pg. 7
6. Interpretation of Results ……………………………………….. pg. 8
7. Conclusion …………………………………………………….. pg. 9
8. Reference ……………………………………………………… pg. 10
9. Data Sheets…………………………………………………….. pg. 11
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Abstract:

The purpose of this lab was to test the plastic limit, the water content (%) at which a
cohesive soil changes from a plastic soil to a semi-solid state, of a given soil specimen.

Introduction:

The boundary of soil between the plastic and solid state means, the limit at which
the soil starts to behave as a plastic. From this it’s clear that the water content or moisture
of the soil determines that boundary level. When the water content or moisture content of
soil increases beyond a limit then the soil starts to behave as liquid. As the same when the
water content or moisture content of soil decreases beyond a limit then the soil start to
behave as solid. The experiments is to determine the plastic limit test of the cohesive soil
that’s provided in the laboratory. When a soil is mixed with a small amount of water it
changes its physical state to a solid state. The mixture then contains a moisture percent
content due to the liquid that was added to the mixture. Once the moisture has been
removed through an oven it will change back into a solid state, which it passes the plastic
state of the soil. The change from the plastic state to a solid state is called the Plastic Limit
of the soil.
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Procedure:

During lab we prepare the material that we would use, for example to prepare the porcelain
evaporating dish, flexible spatula, weight scale, microwave, and rolling surface (glass)

Procedure steps:

1. obtain the appropriate instruments to proceed with the soil.

2. We place it in a porcelain evaporating dish and take the weight of the container on
the scale.
3. We put some water into the container and the soil until we find the plastic limit.
4. we had to try several times before we get the desired texture, after we get the texture
plastic limit we took the weight of the container on the scale with the wet soil
together.
5. We take some of the wet soil that we made and we were rolling of one-eighth of
inch to try the find the perfect piece without a crack that we will take to the
container.
6. after too many attempts we get the desired results.
7. Then then we took the rolling wet soil to the microwave for a minute. After the
minute end we waited till container cools off enough to take the new weight of the
container with the dry soil.
8. We took the weight of the dry soil with the container. After writing down all our
procedures we had to put the rolling dry soil to the microwave for 30 seconds. We
waited till the container cools off to take the last weight of the container with the
dry soil.
9. We done with our calculation for the experiment and try to find the water content
percent.
10. We done the experiment as group and we cleaned the lab after we finish our
experiment.
11. We followed all our professor instructions at the lab.
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Experimental Apparatus:
1. Porcelain evaporating dish

2. Flexible spatula

3. Weight scale

4. Microwave

5. Rolling surface (glass)

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Calculation:

Container Number: 1
Container Mass= 68.85g
Container+ Wet Soil= 72.17g
Container+ Dry Soil= 71.55g

Mass of Wet Soil= Container+ Wet Soil – Container Mass

= 72.17g – 68.85g
= 3.32g

Mass of Dry Soil= Container+ Dry Soil – Container Mass

= 71.55g – 68.85g
= 2.7g

Mass of Water= Mass of Wet Soil – Mass of Dry Soil

= 3.32g – 2.7g
= 0.62g

Water Content= (Mass of Water / Mass of Dry Soil) x 100

= (0.62g / 2.7g) x 100
= 22.9%
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Result of Experiment:

Container Number 1

(a) Container mass: 68.85g

(b) Container+ wet soil 72.17g

(c) Container+ dry soil 71.55g

(d) Mass of wet soil= (b)-(a) 3.32g

(e) Mass of dry soil= (c)-(a) 2.7g

(f) Mass of water= (d)-(e) 0.62g

(g) Water Content= (f)/(e) 22.9%

DATE: 07-08-2014

Boring or Test Pit No: Unknown

Depth of Sample: Unknown

Visual Inspection:
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Interpretation of Results:

Through this experiment, we managed to achieve the objective of this lab that is to
measure the plastic limit to the given soil sample. During the progress of the experiment,
we found out that there are a lot of factorsthat could influence our experiment
outcomeThe existing theories states that plastic limit under 15% is a low identification and
have a magnitude of swell less than.
Our experiment confirms that our soil had a 22.9% of water. The result shows that
our soil could reach its plastic limit without developing internal cracks.
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Conclusion:

1. The liquid limit is always larger than plastic limit.

2. Plasticity index, LL, and PL are very important experiment in civil engineering,
especially in the design of footing, for determining strength, swelling and compaction
characteristics.

From the result we obtained, the value of moisture content as well as the
plastic limitis indicate the characteristic of the soil whereas the water
contents of the soilshould not less than due to the crac/ limit of the soil. as
we get the result of plastic limit, it will use to obtain the Plastic index by the
formula of Liquid Limitdeduct Plastic Limit.

as a conclusion, 15% is plastic index indicates the range between the liquid limitand plastic
limit whereas the percentage of water content should fall between theseintervals.
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References:

1. Leelani, Pat T. “PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE IN GEOTECHNICAL AND

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING”(2014)
2. AASHTO T 89