Liquid and plastic limits of fine-grained soils treated with ice, snow, and vapor

It is a well-known fact that water content has a significant effect on the engineering properties of finegrained soils. There is a close relationship between consistency limits and geotechnical parameters of finegrained soils. A study was conducted to investigate the effect of water phase on the consistency limits of 3 silt samples with a plasticity that varied between low and high. In the tests, distilled water, natural snow, natural ice pieces, and subboiled vapor were used as mixture liquids. The tests indicated that liquid limit values obtained at all of the water phases were comparable for low-plasticity silt samples. However, liquid limit values obtained at the snow, ice, and vapor phases were somewhat greater than that at distilled water. On the other hand, the plastic limit value had a tendency to decrease at the snow, ice, and vapor phases in comparison with that at distilled water for all of the soil samples