Answers to Questions:

1.What is the purpose of shrinkage limit?

Answer: Shrinkage limit can be used to
evaluate the shrinkage potential, crack
development potential and swell potential
of earthwork involving cohesive soils. In
the engineering practice, know such
parameters is highly valuable.
2.Why do we use mercury in the shrinkage
limit test? Is there another technique to
define shrinkage limit? Which one?
Answer: The specific gravity of mercury is
large compared to that of a soil. It also
avoid fuse on other material when in

contact. This characteristic explains that

mercury will never go into soil voids and
affect the measurements of its weight.
Another technique in defining and
determining the shrinkage limit os done by
Wax Method.
3.Why do we coat the shrinkage dish with
petroleum jelly or silicon grease?
Answer: The shrinkage dish is coated with
petroleum jelly to present the soil sample
in sticking and adhering in the dish/cup.
Petroleum jelly also help the easy removal
of the dry soil pat on the cup after oven
drying.

4.Is it meaningful to define a shrinkage

limit for sands?
Answer: Sands are special. They do not
have any Attenberg limit. Therefore, it is
useless to define its shrinkage limit that is
why a representative sample was collected
from sieve number 40 and not any other
finer sieve.
5.Derive shrinkage limit equation.
Answer:
SL (Shrinkage Limit)
= Winitial - Wdry
= Winitial -

W water
W dry

SL (Shrinkage Limit) = = Winitial -

water V water
W dry

DISCUSION:
THEORY:
The shrinkage limit (SL) is the water
content where further loss of moisture will
not result in any more volume reduction. The
test to determine the shrinkage limit is ASTM
International D4943. The shrinkage limit is
much less commonly used than the liquid
and plastic limits. It is the minimum water
content at which a soil is still in saturated
condition.
Shrinkage is soil contraction and is
mainly cause by soil suction, which is the
phenomenon that produces capillary rise of
water in soil pores above the water table.

OBSERVATION:
Soil sample were obtain using the
number 40 sieve. After taking the
representative sample and water was added,
a paste like moisture of considerable water
content was formed. A brass cup was then
coated with petroleum jelly then a firm
mixture was placed on the brass cup by
carefully taping and initially making the
sample reach the surface level of the cup.
All data were recorded and as follows in
the data sheet included in this laboratory
report, the shrinkage limit was determined.
Similar method was used in determining the
water content of the soil sample where the

excess sample was oven-dried and all

necessary measurements, such as wet
weight and dry weight were all recorded.
APPLICATION:
Shrinkage limit, one of the Attenberg
limits, is widely linked with many plasticitybased soil behaviors. However, in a great
majority of these cases, such correlations
have been found to exhibit poor
performance. Recently, it has been brought
out that the shrinkage limit of a natural soil
does not depend upon plasticity
characteristics, and it is primarily governed
by the relative grain size distribution of the
soil. The present study confirms this

mechanism with the results obtained using

clay-clay, clay-non-cohesive soil, and noncohesive soil mix systems. The present study
gains importance from the point of view of
criteria with respect to the design of back fill
materials to be used in various applications,
such as nuclear waste disposal projects.

CONCLUSION:

The shrinkage limit is the water content

dividing the semisolid and solid states of a
soil. It is quantified for a given
soil as the water content that is just sufficient
to fill the voids when the soil is at the
minimum volume it will attain on
drying. Restated, the smallest water content
at which a soil can be completely saturated
at this dry volume is called
the shrinkage limit. Below the shrinkage limit
(SL), any water content change will not result
in a volume change of
the soil. Above the shrinkage limit, any water
content change will result in accompanying
volume change. Based on the date gathered

and recorded on the experiment, it shows

that the average shrinkage limit is 15.08 %.

REFERENCES:
Soil Mechanics and Foundations, Second
Edition by Muni Budhu
Copyright 2007 John Wiley and Sons Inc.

Interactive

Soil

Mechanics

and

Foundations, Version 1
Developed by Muni Budhu

Advanced Soil Mechanics and

Foundations, Third Edition, Braja M Das
Copyright 2008, Taylor and Francis
Geotechnical Engineering, Revised Third
Edition, C.Venkatramaiah
Copyright 2006, New Age International
(P) Ltd Publishers