The preparation of this British Standard was entrusted by the Road
Engineering Standards Policy Committee (RDB/-) to Technical Committee
RDB/38, upon which the following bodies were represented:
Association of Consulting Engineers
British Civil Engineering Test Equipment Manufacturers’ Association
County Surveyors’ Society
Department of the Environment (Property Services Agency)
Department of the Environment (Building Research Establishment)
Department of Transport
Department of Transport (Transport and Road Research Laboratory)
Coopted members
Committees responsible Inside front cover
Foreword ii
1 Scope 1
2 Definitions 1
3 Determination of moisture content 1
3.1 General 1
3.2 Oven-drying method 1
3.3 Method for saturation moisture content of chalk 3
4 Determination of the liquid limit 4
4.1 General 4
4.2 Sample preparation 4
4.3 Cone penetrometer method (definitive method) 5
4.4 One-point cone penetrometer method 8
4.5 Casagrande apparatus method 9
4.6 One-point Casagrande method 11
5 Determination of the plastic limit and plasticity index 13
5.1 General 13
5.2 Sample preparation 13
5.3 Method for plastic limit 13
5.4 Derivation of plasticity index and liquidity index 14
6 Determination of shrinkage characteristics 14
6.1 General 14
6.2 Sample preparation 14