Expert idea on liquid limit and plastic limit estimation with soil resistivity profile

This paper presents the idea on determination of liquid limit and plastic limit with soil electrical resistivity in geotechnical investigations. Depending on the moisture contents, the soil behavior is revealed as solid, semisolid, plastic and liquid states in geotechnical engineering and other division of civil engineering. Determination of liquid limit and plastic limit of soil in conventional laboratory test is very tedious, slower and costly for the laboratory testing example as fall cone testing with a lot of collected soil sample. In this work, a method of soil liquid limit and plastic limit determination with electrical resistivity is revealed to define the state of soil as well as the relationship of soil particle distribution in the soil site investigations of geotechnical engineering. In addition, soil resistivity measurements with moisture contents and conventional laboratory test as fall cone test are performed whereas experimental results in laboratory and results from the available literature review are considered. A good correlation of soil electrical resistivity and moisture contents is demonstrated in results to determine the liquid limit, LL and plastic limit, PL in soil behavior. The research is most significant to obtain faster, cost-effective and consistent performance in soil liquid limit and plastic limit determination through electrical signal for a wide range of applications in geotechnical engineering.