EXP1 (A) - Plastic Limit Test

FACULTY : ENGINEERING
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
EXPERIMENT: PLASTIC LIMIT EFFECTIVE DATE: SEPT. 2016
TEST AMENDMENT DATE: JAN. 2018
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY GEOTECHNIC LABORATORY

(MAKMAL TEKNOLOGI KEJURUTERAAN GEOTEKNIK)
LABORATORY INSTRUCTION SHEETS

COURSE CODE AND NAMA
BNP 20903 / SOIL MECHANIC AND FOUNDATION
KOD DAN NAMA KURSUS
EXPERIMENT NO.
EXP 1(a)
NO. UJIKAJI
EXPERIMENT TITLE
SOIL CHARACTERIZATION (PLASTIC LIMIT TEST)
TAJUK UJIKAJI
DATE OF EXPERIMENT
TARIKH UJIKAJI
NAME MATRIX NO.
NAMA NO. MATRIK
1.
GROUP NO. 2.
NO. KUMPULAN
3.
4.
5.
LECTURER / INSTRUCTOR 1.
PENSYARAH / INSTRUKTOR 2.
RECEIVED DATE AND STAMP
TOTAL MARK (FROM RUBRIC

ASSESSMENT)
JUMLAH MARKAH (DARI RUBRIK
PENILAIAN)
1
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
STUDENT CODE OF ETHICS
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
I hereby declare that I have prepared this report with my own efforts. I also admit to not accept or
provide any assistance in preparing this report and anything that is in it is true.
1) Group Leader __________________________________ (Signature)

Name : __________________________________
Matrix No. : __________________________________
2) Group Member 1 ___________________________________ (Signature)

Name : ___________________________________
Matrix No : ___________________________________
3) Group Member 2 __________________________________ (Signature)

Name : __________________________________
Matrix No. : __________________________________
4) Group Member 3 __________________________________ (Signature)

Name : __________________________________
Matrix No. : __________________________________
2
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
1.0 OBJECTIVES
To Determine the Lowest Moisture Content at Which the Soil Behaves Plastically
2.0 LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this experiment, students are able to:
 Conduct the plastic limit experiment.
 Identify the plastic limit value for soil.
 Identify the importance and application of plastic limit test.
3.0 INTRODUCTION
Plastic limit (PL) is defined as the moisture content (%) at which a cohesive soil will change from
a plastic state to a semisolid state. In the laboratory, the plastic limit is defined as the moisture
content (%) at which a soil will just begin to crumble when rolled into a thread of approximately
3 mm in diameter. Plasticity index (PI or IP) is the numerical difference of the liquid and plastic
limit, and indicates the range of water content through which the soil remains plastic.
PI = LL – PL
For fine grained soils, determining the natural water content (the water content of a soil in an
undisturbed condition in the ground) and relating it to the plastic and liquid limits can provide an
indication of the soil’s consistency and/or sensitivity potential. One such relationship is the
liquidity index.
w  PL
IL 
PI
Consistency index is defined as the ratio of the liquid limit minus the natural water content to
the plasticity index of a soil.
LL  w
Cr 
PI
Table 2.1 : Classification of soil according to plasticity.

Plasticity Index (IP or PI) Degree of Plasticity Type of Soil
0 Non-Plastic Sand
<7 Low-Plastic Silt
7-17 Medium Plastic Silty clay or clayey silt
> 17 Highly Plastic Clay
Table 2.2 : Classification of soil according to liquidity indices.

Liquidity Index (IL or LI) Consistency
< 0.0 Desiccated (dry) hard soil
0.0-0.25 Stiff
0.25-0.50 Medium to soft
0.50-0.75 Soft
0.75-1.00 Very soft
>1.00 Liquid s
3
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
4.0 EQUIPMENT
1) Porcelain evaporating dish.
2) A glass plate reserved for rolling of threads. This should be smooth and free from
scratches, and about 300 mm square and 10mm thick. The surface condition of the plate
can affect the behaviour of rolled threads, and the use of unscratched glass reduces the
likelihood of discrepancies. An alternative is to reserve one side of the mixing plate for
thread rolling, and avoid mixing the soil on this area.
3) Two palette knives or spatulas.
4) A short length (say 100 mm) of 3mm diameter metal rod.
5) Moisture can
6) Balance sensitive up to 0.01g
7) Distilled water
Figure 1 : Apparatus for plastic limit test
5.0 PROCEDURE
i) Selection and preparation of sample

(a) Take about 20 g of dry soil sample, passed through 425 μm test sieve (No. 40 sieve) into a
evaporating dish.
(b) Add distilled water to the soil and mix thoroughly, Figure 2.
Figure 2: Prepared soil paste.
4
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
ii) Rolling into a Ball
(a) When the soil is plastic enough, it is well kneaded and then shaped into a ball, as shown in
Figure 3(a).
(b) When slight cracks begin to appear on the surface, divide the ball into two portions each of
about 10 g.
(c) Further divide each into four equal parts (see Figure 3(b)), but keep each set of four parts
together.
(a) (b)
Figure 3: Rolling into ball and four equal part of soil after divide.
iii) Rolling Into a Threads

(a) Using a steady pressure, roll this mass into a thread between the fingers of one hand and
the surface of the glass plate.
(b) The pressure should reduce the diameter of the thread from 6 mm to about 3 mm after
between five and ten back-and-forth movements of the hand.
(c) It is important to maintain a uniform rolling pressure throughout; do not reduce pressure as
the thread approaches 3 mm diameter.
(d) Dry the soil further by moulding between the fingers again, not by continued rolling which
gives a dried crust.
(e) Form it into a thread and roll out again as before.
(f) Repeat this procedure until the thread crumbles when it has been rolled to 3 mm diameter.
(g) The metal rod serves as a reference for gauging this diameter.
(h) The first crumbling point is the plastic limit
Figure 4: The soil specimen is rolled under the fingers into a thread 3 mm diameter.
5
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
iv) Moisture content measurement

(a) Weight the empty moisture content container, W 1.
(b) Take a moisture sample of about 10 g from the area penetrated by the cone in a moisture can,
using the tip of a small spatula.
(c) Determine the weight the moisture/wet sample plus can, W 2.
(d) Dry in the oven for 24 hours
(e) Weight the dry sample plus can, W 3.
Note: This is placed in a numbered moisture content container, which is weighed, oven dried and
weighed as in the standard moisture content procedure according to BS 1377: Part 2: 1990.
5.0 CALCULATION EXAMPLE
i) Results Calculation
(a) Determine plastic limit, as
(b) Determine plasticity index (PI), as

PI = LL – PL
Table 1: Example of Data Sheet.
Location : RECESS Loc. No. : 00123

Soil description: Silty CLAY Sample No. : 6
Sample type : Undisturbed Depth of Sample : 1.5 m
Operator: A . Z. S Date Started :
Test Number Units 1 2 3 4

Can Number 11 21 32 41
Mass of can + moist soil (W2) gram 46.76 57.20 63.60 71.72
Mass of can + dry soil (W3) gram 32.51 38.31 41.64 45.78
Mass of can (W1) gram 8.31 8.35 8.26 8.29
Mass of dry soil (Ws = W3 – W1) gram 24.20 29.96 33.38 37.49
Mass of water (Ww = W2 – W3) gram 14.25 18.89 21.96 25.94
Water content % 58.88 63.05 65.79 69.19
Plastic limit % 64.27
Calculation of moisture content;

mw 14.25
w   0.5888or58.88%
ms 24.20
Note: If they differ by more than 0.5% moisture content, the test should be repeated.
6
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
7.0 RESULTS
DATA SHEET
Location : Loc. No. :
Soil description: Sample No. :
Sample type : Depth of Sample :
Operator: Date Started :
Test Number Units 1 2 3 4

Can Number
Mass of can + moist soil (M cws) gram
Mass of can + dry soil (M cs) gram
Mass of can (Mc) gram
Mass of dry soil (Ms) gram
Mass of water (Mw) gram
Water content %
Plastic limit %
Plastic limit = %
Liquid limit = %
Plasticity index = Liquid Limit – Plastic Limit = %
7
EDITION: 02
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY: CIVIL
REVISION NO: 02
8.0 DATA ANALYSIS (calculation)

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7.0 DISCUSSION (discuss the results obtained from this testing and contains a comprehensive
discussion of error or confounding variables and what can be done to improve the accuracy of
the lab)
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.......................................................................................................................................................
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8.0 QUESTIONS
(a) What is the different between plastic limit and liquid limit of soil?
(b) Why to know plastic limit of soil?
(c) How plastic limit will be effect on the shear strength of soil?
Prepared by/Disediakan oleh : Approved by/Disahkan oleh :
Signature/Tandatangan : Signature/Tandatangan :
Name/Nama : DR. TUAN NOOR HASANAH BT Name/Nama : ASSOC. PROF DR.
TUAN ISMAIL SURAYA HANI ADNAN
Date/Tarikh : FEBRUARY 2018 Date/ Date/Tarikh : FEBRUARY 2018

EXP1 (A) - Plastic Limit Test

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FACULTY : ENGINEERING

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY GEOTECHNIC LABORATORY

LABORATORY INSTRUCTION SHEETS

RECEIVED DATE AND STAMP

TOTAL MARK (FROM RUBRIC

STUDENT CODE OF ETHICS

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

1) Group Leader __________________________________ (Signature)

2) Group Member 1 ___________________________________ (Signature)

3) Group Member 2 __________________________________ (Signature)

4) Group Member 3 __________________________________ (Signature)

2.0 LEARNING OUTCOMES

Table 2.1 : Classification of soil according to plasticity.

Table 2.2 : Classification of soil according to liquidity indices.

Figure 1 : Apparatus for plastic limit test

i) Selection and preparation of sample

Figure 2: Prepared soil paste.

ii) Rolling into a Ball

iii) Rolling Into a Threads

iv) Moisture content measurement

5.0 CALCULATION EXAMPLE

(b) Determine plasticity index (PI), as

Table 1: Example of Data Sheet.

Location : RECESS Loc. No. : 00123

Test Number Units 1 2 3 4

Calculation of moisture content;

Test Number Units 1 2 3 4

8.0 DATA ANALYSIS (calculation)

Prepared by/Disediakan oleh : Approved by/Disahkan oleh :

Date/Tarikh : FEBRUARY 2018 Date/ Date/Tarikh : FEBRUARY 2018

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