La Trobe

An Alternative Method of Obtaining the Particle Size Distribution of Soils by Electrical Conductivity

Download (5.45 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2024-09-11, 05:15 authored by MD Farhad HasanMD Farhad Hasan, Hossam Aboel NagaHossam Aboel Naga
This study proposes a new method to determine the particle size distribution (PSD) of soils by considering the electrical conductivity (EC) technique. A new EC probe was designed with a transparent thermoplastic, commonly known as acrylic, and brass electrodes. At first, the EC of a soil–water homogeneous suspension was calculated at different densities to obtain a calibration curve of each tested soil sample. During the PSD analysis, as the particles started to settle down in the basement due to gravity, the EC was measured at different time intervals, and the corresponding EC values were then matched with the calibrated EC values at different densities. The proposed method considered the conventional Stokes’ law to determine the diameter of soil particles and the general percentage of passing mathematical expression to obtain the final PSD curve of each soil. The PSD analysis by the EC approach was later validated with that of hydrometer and laser diffraction methods, and in general, good agreements were obtained for identical soil samples at different classifications of soil particles such as clay, silt, and sand. Finally, reproducibility tests were also conducted and the new EC probe overperformed the hydrometer method in terms of both accuracy and precision. The finding from this study aimed to propose an alternative to determine the PSD of soils by using the EC technique with a high level of accuracy and efficiency.

History

Publication Date

2024-08-08

Journal

Minerals

Volume

14

Issue

8

Article Number

804

Pagination

24p.

Publisher

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

ISSN

2075-163X

Rights Statement

© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Usage metrics

    Journal Articles

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC