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; second, you can use the spreadsheet to help you with the mechanical analysis of soils used in the filter experiments. Submit your Excel file for Parts 1-2 to the Assignment ink in Canvas.

Part 1: Develop a spreadsheet to develop the particle-size distribution plot for a given data set. The information in blue is the input data. The spreadsheet results are the value printed in black and the particle-size distribution graph. Your spreadsheet should look similar to the one shown below. Click here for an Excel template of this spreadsheet.

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.