UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

Laboratory Activity 1: Standard Practice for Description and

Identification of Soils (Visual-Manual Procedures) D2488

Instruction:

1. Please follow all the criteria given in ASTM D2488 manual in answering all the visual and Manual
Procedures.

2. ASTM D1452 will be used for the sampling procedure.

Through the standard Practice for description and identification of soils complete the report below
using the given format

A. Angularity—Describe the angularity of the sand (coarse sizes only), gravel, cobbles, and boulders,
as angular, sub-angular, sub-rounded, or rounded in accordance with the criteria.
Soil Particle Manual Description

Sand Sub-rounded

Gravel Angular

Cobbles No data because there was no sample

Boulders No data because there was no sample

B. Shape—describe the shape of the gravel, cobbles, and boulders as flat, elongated, or flat and
elongated if they meet the criteria.
Soil Particle Manual Description

Sand It did not meet any of the criteria

Gravel It did not meet any of the criteria

Cobbles No data because there was no sample

Boulders No data because there was no sample

C. Color—describe the color.

Based on the sand sample that we have, the soils predominant color is dark gray with some
areas being lighter gray and a trace amount of brown. On the other hand, based on the gravel
sample that we have, some of the colors that we have seen in the sample are brown, dark gray and

1 SOIL MECHANICS 1 BY JUDY BRAVO TORDILLA, RCE

UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

light gray.
D. Odor- describe the odor if organic or unusual.
After smelling the sample ,we noticed that both the gravel and the sand had an organic and
earthy odor.

E. Moisture Condition- Describe the moisture condition as dry, moist, or wet, in accordance with
the criteria.
The raw soil sample that we have is damp or humid but there is no visible water on it. But after
drying the sample basically the sample we have is already dry to touch and has an absence of
moisture. According to the criteria for describing moisture condition, the raw sample will fall to
Moist content and the dried sample will fall into Dry content.

l. Reaction- Describe the reaction with HCl as none, weak, or strong, in accordance with the criteria.
There is no data in this part since there is no available HCI during the laboratory activity.

G. Consistency—For intact fine-grained soil, describe the consistency as very soft, soft, firm, hard,
or very hard, in accordance with the criteria
After doing the testing on the determination of the classification for describing the dilatancy, the
sample we have falls into the Soft consistency category. Because the thumb penetrated the soil for
about 1 in. (25mm).

H. Cementation—Describe the cementation of intact coarse-grained soils as weak, moderate, or

strong, in accordance with the criteria.
The intact coarse-grained soils have strong cementation based on the criteria for describing
toughness of the sample. Because after putting finger pressure on it, the soil sample did even cause
it to shutter, crumble or break.

I. Structure—describe the structure of intact soils in accordance with the criteria.

The intact soils were classified as homogenous as this meets the requirements for this category
based on the criteria for describing dilatancy for structure intact soils. The sample that we have has
the same color and appearance all throughout.

J. Range of Particle Sizes—For gravel and sand components, describe the range of particle sizes
within each component as defined. For example, about 20 % fine to coarse gravel, about 40 % fine
to coarse sand.
As for the range of particle sizes, the total weight of our soil sample is 549 grams. In 549 grams
about 325 grams are classified as coarse gravel which is 59% of the total sample and the 224 grams
are classified as the coarse sand which is 41% of the total sample.

K. Maximum Particle Size—Describe the maximum particle size found in the sample in accordance
with the following information:

2 SOIL MECHANICS 1 BY JUDY BRAVO TORDILLA, RCE

UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

a.) Sand Size—If the maximum particle size is a sand size, describe as fine, medium, or coarse
b.) Gravel Size—If the maximum particle size is a gravel size, describe the maximum particle size as
the smallest sieve opening that the particle will pass.
c.) Cobble or Boulder Size—If the maximum particle size is a cobble or boulder size, describe the
maximum dimension of the largest particle.

a.) As for the sand size: maximum particle size, coarse sand.
b.) As for the gravel size: maximum particle size, ¾ inches (will pass a ¾ inches square opening but
not a 1 ½ inches square opening)
c.) As for the cobble or boulder size: we do not have data for this because the sample that we have
doesn't have boulder and boulder size particles.

L. Hardness—Describe the hardness of coarse sand and larger particles as hard, or state what
happens when the particles are hit by a hammer, for example, gravel-size particles fracture with
considerable hammer blow, some gravel-size particles crumble with hammer blow. “Hard” means
particles do not crack, fracture, or crumble under a hammer blow.

As for the sand-size particles fracture, after testing it, some of the particles crumble with the
hammer blow. On the other hand, as for the gravel-size particle fracture the sample had a crack
after testing it.

DATA GATHERED
RAW DATA

ANGULARITY: SAND: Subrounded

GRAVEL: Angular
-There are no retained cobbles and boulders in
the sample gathered.

SHAPE: SAND: Visual

GRAVEL: T=0.8cm, W=2cm, L=4cm

COLOR: SAND: Dark and light gray, brown

GRAVEL: Dark and light gray, brown

ODOR: Organic and Earthy

MOISTURE CONTENT: Moist (raw)

Dry (have after oven dry)

CONSISTENCY: Soft - penetrated for about 1 inches

CEMENTATION: Strong

STRUCTURE: Homogenous

3 SOIL MECHANICS 1 BY JUDY BRAVO TORDILLA, RCE

UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

HARDNESS: SAND: Crumble

GRAVEL: Cracked

MAXIMUM PARTICLE SIZE SAND: Coarse

GRAVEL: ¾ inches
Table 1: Raw Data of the Activity

PARTICLE SHPE

SAND The size was too small to measure, after the

visual analysis we can say that the shape size of
each of the particles will not exceed 3cm.

T= 0.8cm

GRAVEL W= 2cm

L= 4cm

2.5cm > 3cm (FLAT)

2cm > 3cm (ELONGATED)
Table 2: Raw Data for the computation of Particle Shape according to its criteria
ANALYSIS: The data above shows the measured size of the particle using ruler. We therefore conclude
that the sand particle size did not meet the required measurements of the particle size by simply looking
at the sample that we have. Furthermore, the gravel sample that we have did not also meet the
requirements on the criteria since as you can see on the table above, the accumulated measurement of
the particle size on FLAT Criterion size is 2.5cm, wherein it should be greater than 3cm and for the
ELONGATED Criterion size which was in total of 2 cm, wherein it should be greater than 3cm also.

CONCLUSION:
Based on the activity, we identified that the sample that we have can be classified into silty sand
with gravel. It has angular gravel, sub rounded sand, rapid dilatancy and strong toughness with a few
gravel-size particles fractured after testing. While the sample is heterogenous in color but homogenous
in shape. By observing the sample, we can simply say that there is an observable difference with the
coarse-grained and fine-grained sand. That is because of its consistency, cementation, structure, range of
particle size and hardness of the sample.
I learned that this activity will be useful for us as student engineers because the first step in any
geotechnical engineering project is to identify and describe the subsoil condition. For example, as soon
as a ground is identified as gravel, engineers can immediately form some ideas on the nature of
problems that might be encountered in a tunneling project. In contrast, a soft clay ground is expected to
lead to other types of design and construction considerations. Therefore, it is useful to have systematic
procedure for identification of soil even in the planning stage of a project.

4 SOIL MECHANICS 1 BY JUDY BRAVO TORDILLA, RCE

UNIVERSITY OF NUEVA CACERES COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE