Using a Small Ring and a Fall-Cone to Determine the Plastic Limit
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Volume 130, Issue 6
Abstract
The plastic limit is an important property of fine-grained soils. The standard thread-rolling method for determining the plastic limit has long been criticized for requiring considerable judgements from the operator. This paper presents the design of a small specimen ring for fall-cone tests for determining the plastic limit. A small specimen ring of 20 mm in diameter and 20 mm in depth is designed and used for cone penetrations between 10 and 3 mm. For each soil tested, a linear relationship between the logarithmic cone penetration and the logarithmic water content is obtained by a regression analysis on four data points. This linear relationship is extended to determine the plastic limit at 2 mm of cone penetration. The fall-cone plastic limits of 21 soils are in good agreement with their thread-rolling plastic limits. In addition, a one-point fall-cone method is also recommended for determining the plastic limit. As the fall-cone has been recommended in several standards for determining the liquid limit, it is preferable that it is also used for determining the plastic limit.
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References
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 130 • Issue 6 • June 2004
Pages: 630 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 31, 2002
Accepted: Sep 28, 2003
Published online: May 14, 2004
Published in print: Jun 2004
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