PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY Faculty of Engineering Civil Engineering Department Soil Laboratory Student Name : jameel ishaq amer Student

ID : 201020117 Experiment Name : sieve analysis Experiment No : 3 Eng. Mohammed abu swais Date:12/11/ 2013

Objective : To determine the grain-size distribution of soils, gradation of soil sample and classification of soil.

Equipment: 1- Sieves, a bottom pan and cover. Sieve numbers 4, 10, 20, 40, 60, 140, and 200 are generally used for most standard sieve analysis work. 2- A balance sensitive up to 0.1 g . 3- Mortar and rubber-tipped pestle. 4- Oven. 5- Mechanical sieve shaker.

Theory: 1_ Sieve number increase >>> the size of the opening decrease 2_ the no. 200 sieve (0.075)is the sieve with the smallest opening that should be used for the test 3_the method of sieve analysis is applicable for soils that or mostly with some or no fines

Procedure: 1- collect a representative oven dry soil sample. Samples having largest particles of size OF No.4 sieve openings (4.75 mm ) should be about 500 grams. For soils having largest particles of size greater than 4.75 mm, larger weights are needed. 2- Break the soil sample into individual particles by using a mortar and a rubber-tripped pestle. ( Note : the idea is t break up the soil into individual particles, not to break the particles themselves. ) 3- Weigh the sample accurately to 0.1 g (W) . Make a stack of sieves. A sieve with larger openings is placed above a sieve with smaller openings. The sieve at the bottom should be No.200. As mentioned before, generally, the sieves that are used in stack are Nos. 4, 10, 20, 40, 60, 140, and 200, however, more sieves can be placed between. 4- Pour the soil prepared in step 2 into the stack of sieves from the top. 5- Put the cover on the top of the stack of sieves. 6- Run the stack of sieves through a sieve shaker for about 15 min. 7- Stop the sieve shaker and remove the stack of sieve. 8- Weigh the amount of soil retained on each sieve and the bottom pan. If considerable amount of soil with silty and clayey fractions is retained on the No.200 sieve, it has to be washed. Washing is done by taking the No.200 sieve with soil retained on it and pouring water through the sieve from a tap in laboratory

Result:

Sieve no. No. 4 10 16 30 40 50 100 200 Pan SUM

Sieve Mass of Mass opening soil retained (mm) 4.75 2 1.18 0.60 0.425 0.30 0.15 0.075 --(Mn(g)) 24.8 69.9 100.4 116.4 88.5 24.7 38.6 24.1 11.2 498.6 Rn % 4.96 13.98 20.08 23.28 17.7 4.94 7.72 4.82 97.48

Copulative retained

Copulative passing 100 - sum Rn %

4.96 18.94 39.02 62.3 80 84.94 92.66 97.48

95.04 86.06 79.92 76.72 82.3 95.06 92.28 95.18

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION : Sieve analysis is one type of mechanical analysis which determines the size range of particles present in a soil, expressed as a percentage of the total dry weight or mass. Sieve analysis consists of shaking the soil sample through a set of sieves that have progressively smaller openings. The results of sieve analysis are generally expressed as the percentage of total weight of soil that passed through different sieve.

Sources of errors: 1. The sample maybe was less than 500g. 2. The balance did not give the right weight of sieve and soil so there was an error. 3. Maybe there was a sand particles in the soil so the soil doesnt passing the sieves. 4. Human error: the person who makes the experiment and shook the sieves, maybe he dropped a lot of soil from the sieve and maybe he didnt cover the sieve.