Soil normally comprises of solids, water and air.

Water and air is held within the pores

(or voids) between solid particles. Thus, practically soil is a 3-phase system (Solids,
water and air).
When the voids in soil are completely filled by water, it is referred as saturated soil and it
is a 2-phase system (Only solids and water). On the other hand when a soil is perfectly
dried, all the water molecules will be lost and soil again becomes a 2-phase system. But
in this case solids and air make the system. In either cases, the volume of solids is
unchanged.
So now let us understand basic terminology that forms the foundation of soil mechanics.
In the following section, definitions related to soil mechanics are given.
1. Soil = Solids + Water + Air
2. Volume of soil (V) = Volume of solids (V s)+ Volume of water (Vw) + Volume of air
(Va)
3. Weight of soil (W) = Weight of Solids (W s) + Weight of Water (W w) (as Weight of
air = Zero)
4. Water and Air together constitute Voids
5. Volume of voids (Vv) = Volume of water + Volume of air
Are you there? Let us check if you are following! Weight of voids = _____________?
(Answer at the end of the topic)
Now let us see some new terms that relate volumes of these individual phases, which
are technically called Volumetric Relations:
6.

Void Ratio (e)=

Volume of Voids V v
=
Volume of Solids V s

Some observations on Void ratio:

a. e cannot be zero! - Because either water or air WILL exist along with
solids in a soil system.
b. e can be greater than 1. Because voids can always be either more or

7.

less in volume than soil.

V
Volume of voids
Porosity ( n )=
100= s 100
Total Volume of soil
V
a. It is mostly expressed as percentage (%)

b. n cannot be more than 100 %. In fact, n will always be lesser than 100%
and greater 0 %
8. Relation between Void Ratio and Porosity:
n=

9.

e
1+e

Here, porosity should be taken as ratio but not percentage.

Degreeof Saturation(S r)=

V
Volume of water
100= w 100
Volume of voids
Vv

a. It denotes the percentage of voids is filled with water

b. It can range from 0 to 100%. S r = 0 indicates that soil is fully dried
whereas Sr = 100 indicates that soil is fully saturated.
Va
Volume of air
10. Air Content ( ac ) = Volume of voids 100= V v 100
a. It denotes the percentage of voids filled by air
b. It can also range from 0 to 100 %. Zero air content indicates fully
saturated soil whereas 100% air content indicates fully dried soil.
c. Degree of Saturation + Air content = 100% for any soil. If expressed in
fraction,

Sr + ac = 1
Va
Volume of air
Percentage
air
voids
n
=

100=
100
(
)
a
11.
Total soil volume
V
a. For a completely saturated soil, na = 0
b. For dry soils, percentage of air voids = porosity (isnt so?)
Now that we have seen some volumetric relations, let us look it into relations that are
derived on the basis of weights:
Ww
Mass of water
12. Moisture Content ( Water Content ) w= Mass of Solids 100= W s 100
a. Water content is also expressed in terms of weights instead of masses by
some authors.
b. w can be greater than 100%
13. Unit Weights of soil: Weight Density (Weight / Volume) is more commonly
referred as unit weight in soil mechanics. There are various types of unit
weights based on the condition of soil which are explained in the table below.

Before that, some terms and important remarks regarding the terms that are
given in the table are explained for a better understanding of the formulae.
a. As explained above (at Degree of Saturation definition), saturated weight
of soil is the weight when all the voids are completely filled by water. For
example heavy rains or floods occurred in a region, the whole soil will get
saturated due to infiltration of water.
b. On the other hand, if water table is at the ground level at a certain site, it
indicates that the whole soil is submerged in ground water. Then the
weight of soil reduces due to buoyancy (Dont you remember the
Archimedes principle!?). This is called submerged unit weight of soil.
c. When it is mentioned unit weight without any prefix of soil condition in
the question, it refers to Bulk unit weight.
Unit Weight
Bulk Unit Weight,

or

simply
Dry Unit Weight,

Saturated Unit Weight,

sat

Submerged Unit Weight,

'
or

Unit Weight of Solids,

Definition
Total Weight of Soil
Total Volume of Soil

Formula
W s +W w
V

Weight of Solids
Total Volume of Soil

Ws
V

Saturated Weight of Soil

Total Volume of Soil

W sat
V

Submerged Weight of Soil

Total Volume of Soil

W
V

Weight of Solids
Volume of Solids

Ws
Vs

Specific Gravity (G): At a given temperature, the ratio of unit weight of solids ( s ) to
unit weight of distilled water ( w ) is known as specific gravity. Normally specific
gravity of soils range between 2.65 and 2.80
Specific gravity is an important property of any soil. Hence, basic data in any problem
contains value of G to specify the soil type.

Important note: Specific gravity of coarse grained soils (i.e the soils with larger
particles like gravel) is lesser than that of fine grained soils. Think of it and refer to the
end of the chapter for the answer.
Apparent or Bulk Specific Gravity or Mass Specific Gravity: The G that was
discussed in the above section refers to the weight of only solids whereas Apparent of
Bulk specific gravity (Gm) is the ratio of Bulk unit weight (
w . Since

is constant and

to unit weight of water (

varies from time to time depending on water

content, G is constant for a soil where Gm is variable.