ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LAHORE SOIL, BASED ON GEOTECHNICAL TESTING AND MINERALOGICAL COMPOSITION USING X-RAY DIFFRACTION

Abstract

Engineering geological investigation was carried out to characterize the soil in the Lahore area. Eleven samples were collected from various locations from 25-50 cm depth. Mostly these samples are from green belt and parks where original alluvial deposits exist. Field and laboratory tests were performed to determine the geotechnical properties by adopting standard test procedures. The mineralogical composition of the soil has been verified with XRD for all the samples. The results indicate that geotechnical properties of the soil are as, density 18.30 KN/m3 , moisture content by oven dried method 11.90%, moisture content by speedy moisture meter 19.25%, specific gravity 2.78, liquid limit 32.46%, plastic limit 21.57%, friction angle 23.07o
, optimum moisture content 8.55% and dry density 3.97g/cm3. The XRD results clearly shows that the soil in Lahore area is predominately composed of Quartz, Muscovite and Clinoclore as major minerals and can be classified as silty clay.