The soil properties and parameters can be broadly classified as
1)Physical
2)Engineering
3)Index
Physical soil properties include density, particle size and distribution, specific gravity, and water content.
The water content w of a soil sample represents the weight of free water contained in the sample expressed as a percentage of its dry weight.
The degree of saturation S of the sample is the ratio, expressed as percentage, of the volume of free water contained in a sample to its total volume of voids Vv
Porosity n, which is a measure of the relative amount of voids, is the ratio of void volume to the total volume V of soil:
n=Vv/V
The ratio of Vv to the volume occupied by the soil particles Vs defines the void ratio e. Using this e we can calculate the degee of saturation by
S=wGs/e
where Gs represents the specific gravity of the soil particles. For most inorganic soils, Gs is usually in the range of (2.67+ or -0.05.)
The dry unit weight ?d of a soil specimen with any degree of saturation may be calculated from
?d=?wGsS/(1+wGs)
where w =unit weight of water and is usually taken as 62.4 lb/ft3 (1001 kg/m3 ) for freshwater and 64.0 lb/ft3
(1026.7 kg/m3 ) for seawater.
