Cven 413 (Highway Engineering) m 1 1
Cven 413 (Highway Engineering) m 1 1
v. Design of overlays
Course Outline Cont”d
Soils with >50% of their particles being retained on the No. 200 sieve are
coarse-grained, and those with <50% of their particles retained are fine-
grained soils . The coarse grained soils are subdivided into gravels (G)
and sands (S). Soils having >50% of their particles larger than 75 mm,
retained on the No. 4 sieve—are gravels and those with >50% of their
particles smaller than 75mm, passed through the No. 4 sieve—are sands.
USCS CONT’D
The gravels and sands are further divided into four subgroups—each based
on grain-size distribution and the nature of the fine particles in them.
silty sand (SM), and those with plots above the “A” line with a PI >7 are
classified as clayey gravels (GC) or clayey sands (SC). The organic, silty, and
clayey soils are further divided into two groups, one having a relatively low LL
(L) and the other having a relatively high LL (H). The dividing line between
high LL soils and low LL soils is arbitrarily set at 50 %. Fine-grained soils can be
classified as either silt with low plasticity (ML), silt with high plasticity (MH),
clays with high plasticity (CH), clays with low plasticity (CL), or organic silt with
high plasticity (OH). Table 17.3 gives the complete layout of the USCS.
USCS CONT’D
USCS CONT’D
EXAMPLES
EXAMPLES
USCS CONT’D