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1

MSE, BARIPADA

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

PRESENTATION

ON

SPECIFIC GRAVITY

BY :- ER. ANKIT JOSHI

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Specific Gravity

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Specific Gravity Gs

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Phase Material

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The Mineral Skeleton

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Three Phase Diagram

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Fully Saturated Soils

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Dry Soils

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Partly Saturated Soils

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Phase Diagram

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Objectives of a Phase Diagram

To compute the weights (or masses) and volumes of the three different phases.

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Volume Relationships

Void ratio (e): is a measure of the void volume

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Volume Relationships

Porosity (n): is also a measure of the void volume, expressed as a percentage.

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Volume Relationships

Degree of saturation (S): is the percentage of the void volume filled by water.

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Weight Relationships

Water content (w): is a measure of the water

present in the soil.

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Unit Weight Relationships

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Unit Weight Relationships

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Phase Relations

Consider a fraction of the soil where Vs = 1.

The other volumes can

be obtained from the

previous definitions.

The weights can be obtained from:

Weights = Unit Weights x Volume

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Phase Relations

From the previous definitions,

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Phase Relations

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Definitions

Bulk (natural), saturated, dry and submerged

densities (ρ) are defined in a similar manner.

Here, you can also use mass (kg) instead of weight (kN).

γ / g = ρ = M/V

Where:

γ =N/m3 , g= m/s2, ρ = kg/m3

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Specific Gravity

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Specific Gravity, In Terms of Density

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Relationship between parameters

These definitions can be used to determine any desired relationships between above quantities, and hence to determine void ratio, degree of saturation, etc. That can not be measured directly by laboratory tests. Some relationships are as follows:

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Relationship between parameters

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A Gentle Reminder

Try not to memorize the equations. Understand

the definitions, and develop the relations from the phase diagram with VS = 1;

􀁺 Assume GS ( 2.6-2.8) when not given;

􀁺 Do not mix densities and unit weights;

􀁺 Soil grains are incompressible. Their mass and volume remain the same at any void ratio.