Development of Relationship between Liquid Limit and Clay Content for West Java Soils

Abstract Soil is an essential factor in implementing civil engineering construction. Each region has varying characteristics and natural properties of soils, so it needs to be tested. One of the tests to determine those properties, especially fine-grained soils, is the Atterberg limits (i.e., Liquid Limit and Plastic Limit). The fall cone penetrometer test can provide liquid-limit values similar to the other methods (i.e., Casagrande Cup test). The hydrometer test results can determine the soil classification and the amount of clay and silt content. Then, the next step is to establish the relationship between the liquid limit and clay content in a soil sample. This study uses four soil samples with direct laboratory tests and seventeen soil samples from our previous research in West Java, Indonesia. The liquid limit is in the range of 41.46% to 115.80%. Clay fraction ranges from 12.24% to 66.18%. The results show that increasing clay content is followed by increasing the liquid limit in a linear relation. Other relations, such as plastic limit and plasticity index to clay content, show the same tendencies. Then, the results are similar to the other research using soils from England and Kenya.