Review and critical examination of fine-grained soil classification systems based on plasticity

Abstract Soil classification systems represent powerful tools not only to facilitate soil identification, but also to predict its possible behavior. While the use of arbitrary standards based on particle size distribution may be applicable to coarse-grained soils, those approaches based exclusively on textural principles are ineffective in classifying fine-grained soils, where clay content and its mineralogy dictate the general properties. In this sense, the measurement of plasticity represents a more appropriate parameter than particle size. This fact has led various authors and technical committees to develop fine-grained soil classification systems based on plasticity. However, the disparity of criteria makes it necessary to review them in order to glimpse the weaknesses and strengths of each of them. This paper includes the review of the six main existing proposals together with the possible variants arising from them: Casagrande (1947) -Unified Soil Classification System (USCS), American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), Saito and Miki (1975) , Polidori, 2003 , Polidori, 2007 , Polidori, 2009 and Moreno-Maroto and Alonso-Azcarate, 2017 , Moreno-Maroto and Alonso-Azcarate, 2018 classification charts, which are designed on the basis of Atterberg limits. After conducting a complete and thorough examination, it is shown that although the Casagrande (1947) -USCS approach is the most widely known, of all the proposals examined, only that of Moreno-Maroto and Alonso-Azcarate, 2017 , Moreno-Maroto and Alonso-Azcarate, 2018 is based on well-founded criteria, presenting a strong predictive capacity, as well as being simple, precise and adaptable to needs.

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