Development of a Smartphone Application for Classifying Soils Based on AASHTO Classification System

Abstract

Engineering soils are classified using charts and tables so as to have first-hand knowledge of their engineering properties. Majority of the mobile application used to classify soils are based on the USCS, USDA and ASTM system. Thus, this research is focused on the development of a mobile application for classifying soils based on AASHTO classification system. The mobile application was written in Java programming language using the android studio environment. Two cases of Liquid Limit (LL), Plasticity Index (PL) and percentage of soil passing sieve number 200 used to validate the mobile application was 39.45%, 26.52. and 38 % as well as 19%, 19%, and 35% termed case I and II respectively. Results obtained using AASHTO classification charts were the same as that obtained using the mobile application developed. The mobile application classified case I as A-6 soil consisting of clayey particles with a poor rating while case II was classified as A-2-4 silty or clayey gravel having a good rating. The study concluded that the mobile application can be used to classify soils based on the AASHTO classification system to save time.