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Unified Soil Classification System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Unified Soil Classification System


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) is a soil classification system used in engineering and geology to describe the texture and grain size of a soil. The classification system can be applied to most unconsolidated materials, and is represented by a two-letter symbol. Each letter is described below (with the exception of Pt): First and/or second letters Symbol Definition G S M C O gravel sand silt clay organic

Letter P W H L

Second letter Definition poorly graded (uniform particle sizes) well-graded (diversified particle sizes) high plasticity low plasticity

If the soil has 512% by weight of fines passing a #200 sieve (5% < P#200 < 12%), both grain size distribution and plasticity have a significant effect on the engineering properties of the soil, and dual notation may be used for the group symbol. For example, GW-GM corresponds to "well -graded gravel with silt." If the soil has more than 15% by weight retained on a #4 sieve (R#4 > 15%), there is a significant amount of gravel, and the suffix "with gravel" may be added to the group name, but the group symbol does not change. For example, SP-SM could refer to "poorly graded SAND with silt" or "poorly graded SAND with silt and gravel."

Symbol chart
Major divisions clean gravel <5% smaller than #200 Sieve gravel with >12% fines Group symbol GW GP GM GC SW SP sand with >12% fines inorganic organic SM SC ML CL OL MH silt and clay liquid limit 50 inorganic CH organic Highly organic soils OH Pt Group name well-graded gravel, fine to coarse gravel poorly graded gravel silty gravel clayey gravel well-graded sand, fine to coarse sand poorly graded sand silty sand clayey sand silt clay organic silt, organic clay silt of high plasticity, elastic silt clay of high plasticity, fat clay organic clay, organic silt peat

gravel > 50% of coarse fraction retained on No. 4 (4.75 mm) sieve Coarse grained soils more than 50% retained on No. 200 (0.075 mm) sieve sand 50% of coarse fraction passes No.4 sieve

clean sand

silt and clay liquid limit < 50 Fine grained soils more than 50% passes No.200 sieve

See also
AASHTO Soil Classification System AASHTO ASTM International

References
Classification of Soils for Engineering Purposes: Annual Book of ASTM Standards (http://www.astm.org/Standards/D2487.htm) , D 2487-83, 04.08, American Society for Testing and Materials, 1985, pp. 395408, http://www.astm.org/Standards/D2487.htm Evett, Jack and Cheng Liu (2007), Soils and Foundations (7 ed.), Prentice Hall, pp. TBD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Soil_Classification_System

8/14/2012

Unified Soil Classification System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Unified_Soil_Classification_System&oldid=500272078" Categories: Geotechnical engineering Sedimentology Encodings Soil This page was last modified on 2 July 2012 at 02:11. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Soil_Classification_System

8/14/2012

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