A Study on the Effect of Moisture on Strength Characteristics of River Sand

Abstract

The top most mantle of earth, which was once rock, has been transformed to soil by natural forces of weather .Texturally soil is not one material but a compound of three ingradients, derived from the same parental rock . They are sand, silt and clay. Though mostly soil occurs as a combination of the three materials, there are places where stretches of sand do occur alone where building activity has to be carried out.
Besides occurrence of sand in a soil (its percentage) mass influences its strength characteristics to a great extent. For example, while constructing piers and abutments (of a bridge) which mostly stand on a sandy base, the bearing capacity of sand becomes the most important criterion in deciding the size and depth of the construction. Besides strength of silt and clay get drastically affected when it comes in contact with water. But sand except very fine sand, is least affected with water. It is therefore very important to study the extent to which the strength of sand is affected with water.