Analysing the relationship between linear shrinkage and swell of soaked CBR Samples

Abstract

The behavior of clays is very critical in many engineering works, tests on the soils are carried out before a project is started to know their behavior and which methods of construction would be employed depending on the structure to be constructed and the treatment methods to employ to make the ground bear the loads. Atterberg’s limits are used in the classification tests for soils. Highly plastic results obtained during the Atterberg’s limit tests are indicator of the type of fine soils and in order to obtain the percentage of clays in the sample, the hydrometer test is carried out. The soil tests in engineering purposes also include the compaction tests and these include the MDD (maximum dry density test) or proctor test and the CBR (California bearing ratio test) which are used in obtaining the optimum moisture content which should be present in the soils to obtain the maximum compaction and the bearing capacity or strength of the soil respectively. The cost of the capacitation tests in comparison to Atterberg’s limits test is so high. The focus of this study is to find out a basis of sorting out samples from borrow pits that would produce required CBR results and without exceeding the maximum specified swell of soaked CBR sample according to the specification in ministry of works and transport manual by first carrying out Atterberg’s tests a cheaper test before carrying on with a more Expensive test, the CBR test.