CIVL 1101 - Assignment #9

 Name: ________________________

 

"One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer." - Stephen Hawking

Objective

The purpose of this assignment is twofold: first, you will get yet another chance to practice your skills in developing simple engineering spreadsheets for civil engineering applications; and second, you can use the spreadsheet to help you with the mechanical analysis of soils used in the filter experiments.

Part 1: Develop a spreadsheet to develop the particle-size distribution plot for a given set of data. Use your spreadsheet to develop a particle-size distribution plot for the following data:

Sieve Number

Mass of soil retained
on each sieve (g)

4 0
10 41.2
20 55.1
40 80.0
60 91.6
100 60.5
200 35.6
Pan 21.5

Estimate D10, D30, and D60 from the particle-size distribution curve and compute the effective size, the uniformity coefficient, Cu, and the coefficient of gradation, Cc.

Part 2: Use your spreadsheet to develop a particle-size distribution plot for the following data:

Sieve Number

Mass of soil retained
on each sieve (g)

4 0.0
8 0.1
16 303.6
30 183.1
50 6.9
100 0.1
200 0.0
Pan 0.0

Estimate D10, D30, and D60 from the particle-size distribution curve. Compute the effective size, the uniformity coefficient, Cu, and the coefficient of gradation, Cc.

Extra Credit: Estimate D10, D30, and D60 from the particle-size distribution curve using linear interpolation between appropriate sieves using spreadsheet functions so that the entire sieve analysis computation is automated.

Part 3: Read Chapter 9 in the Strategies for Creative Problem Solving by Fogler and LeBlanc.