Laboratory 5 – Moisture Co

ntent

SUMMARY

The experiment was performed by the group on September 19, 2018, it started on 2pm and finished at
5pm same day. It was performed at CMT/Soil Laboratory. The material used in this experiments are:
Moisture Cans with Cap, Oven, Balance or Weighing Scale, Dessicators.

The experiment started by selecting soil sample. After that, prepare 3 moisture can and weigh them and
designate them as W1. Place around 50g moist soil sample into the moisture cans. After placing the soil
sample, weigh them again and designate the weighted moisture cam with soil sample as W2. After that,
place the 3 can in the oven with temperature of 105C for 24 hours. After the required hours, removed
the cans and weigh them again and designate them as W3. Record all the data on a table for the
analysis and determination of the required on this experiments. For Dry Soil, W3-W1, for mass of water
W2-W3, and for moisture content w (%) = (( W2 – W3 ) /( W3 – W1 ))×100 given in laboratory manual.

CONCLUSION

After the experiment, data were collected. Moisture content are 23.1756, 22.5637 and 25.8299 for
Moisture Can #1, #2 and #3 respectively. Our experiment shows an almost consistent moisture content
based on the three trials performed. The average moisture content of our soil sample is 23.8564%. It is
important to determine the moisture content of a given soil because it is used to determine its bearing
capacity, settlement, degree of expansion, and various other engineering parameters.

LABORATORY 4 – SPECIFIC GRAVITY

The group conducted the laboratory #4 on September 19, 2018 around 2in the afternoon to 5
oclock in the afternoon. It was done on Soil/CMT Laboratory. Material and equipment used are:
Two density bottles of approximately 50ml capacity along with stoppers, Constant temperature water
bath (27.0 + 0.2oC), Vacuum desiccator, Oven, capable of maintaining a temperature of 105 to 110Oc,
Weighing balance, with an accuracy of 0.001g, Spatula

It started by making sure that density bottle with stopper should be dry and must be weigh to the
nearest 0.001g. After that, sub-sample which should have been air dried or oven dried should be
transfer to the flask. Weigh them together – stopper and flask to the nearest 0.001g
The density bottle along with the stopper, should be dried and weighed to the nearest 0.001g.
Cover the soil with air-free distilled water from the glass wash bottle and should be leave for a
period of 2 to 3 hour for soaking. After that process, add water to fill the bottle about the half.
Entrapped air can be removed by heating the density bottle on a water bath or a sand bath. Keep the
bottle without the stopper in a vacuum desiccator for about 1 to 2 hours until there is no further loss of
air. Gently stir the soil in the density bottle with a clean glass rod, carefully wash off the adhering
particles from the rod with some drops of distilled water and see that no more soil particles are lost.
Repeat the process until no more air bubbles are observed in the soil-water mixture.
CONCLUSION

In soil mechanics, the specific gravity of soil solids is an important parameter and is a factor in many
equations involving weight-volume relationships
For soil solids, Gs may be written as:
density of soil soilids mass of soil solids
Gs= =
density of water mass of an equal volume of water
The group used the above equation for the whole duration of the experiment. The specific gravity
obtained in this laboratory experiment is unit less. It is essential in determining other important
properties of the soil Also, the specific gravity of soil is helpful in classifying soils and in finding other
weight-volume properties.