Absorption water content and liquid limit of soils

Consistency limits are extensively used in geotechnical engineering practice. Besides the consistency limits, the plasticity index, liquidity index, and consistency index have been used to correlate with engineering properties. The test procedures that have been developed to determine liquid limit are based on the strength criterion, and the liquid limit corresponds to a shearing resistance of 1.7 to 2.0 kPa. However, the mechanisms controlling the test procedures do not simulate the mechanisms controlling the water-holding capacity of soils that the liquid limit is supposed to represent. In this paper an attempt has been made to devise a test procedure, known as the absorption test, which simulates the mechanisms controlling the water holding-capacity of soils. The equilibrium water content reached by the dry soil pats starting at shrinkage limit void ratio is found to have a good correlation with the conventional liquid limit obtained from the cone penetrometer method.