INDEX

Specific Gravity of Common Minerals

Void ratio, Moisture Content, and Dry Unit Weight for Some Typical Soils in a Natural State
Qualitative Description of Granular Soil Deposits
Typical Values of Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit, and Activity of Some Clay Minerals
Typical Values of Hydraulic Conductivity of Saturated Soils
Empirical Relationships for Estimating Hydraulic Conductivity
Approximate Range of Capillary Rise in Soils
Representative Values of the Modulus of Elasticity of Soil
Representative Values of Poissons Ratio
Correlations for Compression Index Cc
Variation of sin with plasticity index for a number of soils
General Relationship of Consistency and Unconfined Compression Strength of Clays
Spacing of borings
Approximate Correlations of Standard Penetration Number and Consistency of Clay
Approximate Relationship Between Corrected Standard Penetration Number and Relative Density of
Sand

Specific Gravity of Common Minerals

Mineral
Specific Gravity, Gs
Quartz
2.65
Kaolinite
2.6
Illite
2.8
Montmorillonite
2.652.80
Halloysite
2.02.55
Potassium feldspar
2.57
Sodium and calcium feldspar
2.622.76
Chlorite
2.62.9
Biotite
2.83.2
Muscovite
2.763.1
Hornblende
3.03.47
Limonite
3.64.0
Olivine
3.273.7

Void ratio, Moisture Content, and Dry Unit Weight for Some Typical Soils in a Natural State

Type of soil
Loose uniform sand
Dense uniform sand
Loose angular-grained silty sand
Dense angular-grained silty sand
Stiff clay
Soft clay
Loess
Soft organic clay
Glacial till

Void ratio, e
0.8
0.45
0.65
0.4
0.6
0.91.4
0.9
2.53.2
0.3

Natural moisture content

in a saturated state (%)
30
16
25
15
21
3050
25
90120
10

Dry unit
weight, d
kN/m3
14.5
18
16
19
17
11.514.5
13.5
68
21

Qualitative Description of Granular Soil Deposits

Relative Density (%)
015
1550
5070
7085
85100

Description of soil deposit

Very loose
Loose
Medium
Dense
Very dense

Typical Values of Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit, and Activity of Some Clay Minerals
Mineral

Liquid limit, LL

Plastic limit, PL

Kaolinite
Illite
Montmorillonite
Halloysite (hydrated)
Halloysite (dehydrated)
Attapulgite
Allophane

35100
60120
100900
5070
4055
150250
200250

2040
3560
50100
4060
3045
100125
120150

Activity, A
0.30.5
0.51.2
1.57.0
0.10.2
0.40.6
0.41.3
0.41.3

Sridharan et al. (1999) showed that the plasticity index can be correlated to the flow index as obtained
from the liquid limit tests. According to their study,
(%) = 4.12 (%)
(%) = 0.741 (%)

Typical Values of Hydraulic Conductivity of Saturated Soils

Soil type
Clean gravel
Coarse sand
Fine sand
Silty clay
Clay

k
cm/sec
1001.0
1.00.01
0.010.001
0.0010.00001
<0.000001

Empirical Relationships for Estimating Hydraulic Conductivity

Source

Sand

Amer and Awad

(1974)

= 2 10 2.32 0.6

Shahabi, Das,
Tarquin (1984)

= 1.22 0.735 10 0.89

Clay

Mesri and Olson

(1971)

Taylor (1948)
a

Relationship a

Type of soil

Comments
3
1+
3
1+

Medium to fine
sand

= +
= 0

0.50

D10= effective size

Cu= uniformity coefficient
C2= a constant
k0= in situ hydraulic conductivity at void ratio e0
k= hydraulic conductivity at void ratio e
Ck= permeability change index

For e<2.5

Approximate Range of Capillary Rise in Soils

Soil type
Coarse sand
Fine sand
Silt
Clay

Range of capillary
rise
m
0.11.2
0.31.2
0.757.5
7.523

Representative Values of the Modulus of Elasticity of Soil

Soil type
Soft clay
Hard clay
Loose sand
Dense sand

Es
kN/m2
18003500
600014000
1000028000
3500070000

Representative Values of Poissons Ratio

Type of soil Poissons ratio, s
Loose sand
0.20.4
Medium sand
0.250.4
Dense sand
0.30.45
Silty sand
0.20.4
Soft clay
0.150.25
Medium clay
0.20.5

Correlations for Compression Index Cc*

Equation
Cc = 0.007(LL-7)
Cc = 0.01wN
Cc = 1.15(e0-0.27)
Cc = 0.30(e0-0.27)

Reference
Region of applicability
Skempton (1944) Remolded clays
Chicago clays
Nishida (1956)
All clays
Hough (1957)
Inorganic cohesive soil: silt, silty clay, clay

Cc = 0.115wN

Organic soils, peats, organic silt, and clay

Cc = 0.0046(LL-9)
Cc = 0.75(e0-0.5)
Cc = 0.208e0+0.0083
Cc = 0.1556e0+0.0107

Brazilian clays
Soils with low plasticity
Chicago clays
All clays

*After Rendon-Herrero (1980)

e0= in situ void ratio; wN= in situ water content

On the basis of observations on several natural clays, Rendon-Herrero (1983) gave the relationship for
the compression index in the form
= 0.141

1 + 0 2.38
(
)

1.2

Nagaraj and Murty (1985) expressed the compression index as

= 0.2343 [

(%)
]
100

The swell index is appreciably smaller in magnitude than the compression index and can generally be
determined from laboratory tests. In most cases,

1
1

5
10

The swell index was expressed by Nagaraj and Murty (1985) as

= 0.0463 [

(%)
]
100

Variation of sin with plasticity index for a number of soils (after Kenney, 1959)

General Relationship of Consistency and Unconfined Compression Strength of Clays

Consistency qu ( kN/m2)
Very soft
025
Soft
2550
Medium
50100
Stiff
100200
Very stiff
200400
Hard
>400

Spacing of borings
Project
Boring spacings (m)
One-story buildings
2530
Multistory buildings
1525
Highways
250300
Earth dams
2550
Residential subdivision planning
60100

Approximate Correlations of Standard Penetration Number and Consistency of Clay

Standard
Penetration
number,N

Consistency

Unconfined
compression
strength
(kN/m2)
0

Very soft
2

25
Soft

50
Medium stiff

100
Stiff

16

200
Very stiff

32

400
Hard

>32

>400

Approximate Relationship Between Corrected Standard Penetration Number and Relative Density of
Sand
Corrected standard penetration
number, Ncor
05
510
1030
3050

Relative
density, Dr
05
530
3060
6095