ISSN: 1945-7545
CODEN: GTJODJ
Published Online: 12 July 2006
Page Count: 8

An Improved Volume Measurement for Determining Soil Water Retention Curves

Péron, H
Ph.D. Student and Researcher, Ecole,

Hueckel, T
Professor, Duke University, Durham, NC

Laloui, L
Ph.D. Student and Researcher, Ecole,

(Received 15 December 2005; accepted 30 May 2006)

Abstract

The complete determination of soil water retention curves requires the sample volume to be measured in order to calculate its void ratio and degree of saturation. During drying in the pressure plate apparatus, cracks often appear in the sample altering its deformation and evaporation patterns. Consequently, this causes a significant scatter in the volume measurement when using the volume displacement method. This paper proposes a simple method to avoid cracking, by limiting friction and adhesion boundary effects, to allow for unrestrained shrinkage of the sample. Such modification of the technique decreases the measurement error by a factor of three.

Keywords:
soil water retention curve, friction, shrinkage, cracks, volume measurement accuracy

Paper ID: GTJ100167
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ100167
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