Procedure:- (IS-2720-PART-6-1972)

1. Select a representative sample of soil of about 100 g passing through 425μ sieve.

2. Take 30 g out of it and place the same in an evaporating dish. Mix it thoroughly with distilled water and make it into a thin paste for readily filling into a dish free from air bubbles.

Determination of mass and volume of shrinkage dish:

1. Take a shrinkage dish, clean it and find its mass correct to 0.1 gm (M3).=------g

2. To determine its volume, place it in an evaporating dish. Fill the shrinkage dish with mercury till the excess overflows to the evaporatingdish.

3. Coat the inside of the shrinkage dish with a thin layer of silicon grease or Vaseline. Place a part of the soil paste prepared earlier at the centre of the dish so that it may occupy about one-third of its volume.

4. Find the mass of the wet soil with the dish immediately after filling(M1)=-------g

5. Keep the dish with soil exposed to air until the colour of the pat turns from black to light.

6. Select a glass cup with a flat bottom and keep ion an evaporating dish. Fill the cup with mercury and remove the excess mercury by pressing the glass plate with three prongs firmly over the top of thecup.

7. Remove the split over the mercury, take out the glass plate with the prongs, place the dry soil pat on the surface of the mercury.

8. Force the soil pat into the mercury by pressing with the same glass plate with the prongs. Collect carefully the split over mercury and find its mass(Mm)=------g