FM 5-410

eliminate the need for specialized equipment and reports. These sources may be of value to
such as sieves. The results will give at least a the military engineer in studying soils in a
tentative classification to almost any soil. given area. For this reason, it is important
The schematic diagram in Figure 5-7, page that the military engineer have some
5-26, may be used as a guide to the testing se- knowledge of other commonly used systems.
quence in the process of assigning a symbol to Table 5-5 gives approximate equivalent
a sample of soil. groups for the USGS, Revised Public Roads
System, and the Federal Aviation Ad-
OPTIMUM MOISTURE CONTENT (OMC) ministration (FAA) System.
To determine whether a soil is at or near
OMC, mold a golf-ball-size sample of the soil Revised Public Roads System
with your hands. Then squeeze the ball be- Most civil agencies concerned with high-
tween your thumb and forefinger. If the ball ways in the United States classify soil by the
shatters into several fragments of rather Revised Public Roads System. This includes
uniform size, the soil is near or at OMC. If the the Bureau of Public Roads and most of the
ball flattens out without breaking, the soil is state highway departments. The Public
wetter than OMC. If, on the other hand, the Roads System was originated in 1931. Part of
soil is difficult to roil into a ball or crumbles the original system, which applied to uniform
under very little pressure, the soil is drier subgrade soils, used a number of tables and
than OMC. charts based on several routine soil tests to
permit placing of a given soil into one of eight
Section II. Other Soil principal groups, designated A-1 through
Classification Systems A-8. The system was put into use by many
agencies. As time passed, it became apparent
that some of the groups were too broad in
COMMONLY USED SYSTEMS coverage because somewhat different soils
Information about soils is available from were classed in the same group. A number of
many sources, including publications, maps, the agencies using the system modified it to

Soil Classification 5-29

suit their purposes. Principal modifications original system, which contained the highly
included breaking down some of the broad organic soils such as peat, is not included in
groups into subgroups of more limited scope. the revised system. The committee felt that
The revisions culminated in a comprehensive no group was needed for these soils because of
committee report that appeared in the their ready identification by appearance and
Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the odor. Whether a soil is silty or clayey depends
Highway Research Board (1945). This same on its PI. “Silty” is applied to material that
report contains detailed information relative has a PI < 10 and “clayey” is applied to a
to the Airfield Classification System and the material that has a PI 10.
Federal Aviation Administration System.
The Revised Public Roads System is primar- Figure 5-8 shows the formula for group
ily designed for the evaluation of subgrade index and charts to facilitate its computation.
soils, although it is useful for other purposes The group index was devised to provide a
also. basis for approximating within-group evalua-
tions. Group indexes range from 0 for the
Basis. Table 5-6 shows the basis of the best subgrade soils to 20 for the poorest. In-
Revised Public Roads System. Soils are creasing values of the group index within
classed into one of two very broad groups. each basic soil group reflect the combined ef-
They are— fects of increasing LLs and PIs and
Granular materials, which contain < decreasing percentages of coarse material in
35 percent of material passing a decreasing the load-carrying capacity of sub-
Number 200 sieve. grades. Figure 5-9, page 5-32, graphically
Silt-clay materials, which contain > shows the ranges of LL and PI for the silt-clay
35 percent of material passing a groups. It is particularly useful for subdivid-
Number 200 sieve. ing the soils of the A-7 group.
There are seven major groups, numbered Procedure. Table 5-6 is used in a left-to-
A-1 through A-7, together with a number of right elimination process, and the given soil is
suggested subgroups. The A-8 group of the placed into the first group or subgroup in

Soil Classification 5-30