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TOWARDS AN ABSOLUTE MEASUREMENT OF SOIL STRUCTURAL STABILITY USING ULTRASOUND
Author(s) -
NORTH P. F.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.244
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2389
pISSN - 0022-4588
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2389.1976.tb02014.x
Subject(s) - dispersion (optics) , stability (learning theory) , measure (data warehouse) , range (aeronautics) , soil science , interpretation (philosophy) , fraction (chemistry) , field (mathematics) , soil water , mathematics , chemistry , materials science , physics , environmental science , optics , computer science , chromatography , composite material , database , machine learning , pure mathematics , programming language
Summary Calibrations enabled controlled application of a range of known dispersive energies to a selected soil sample. The corresponding levels of dispersion were measured in terms of the weight fraction of particles <2 μm equivalent spherical diameter produced, and are used to define a dispersion characteristic for the test soil. Interpretation of this characteristic in terms of a microaggregate theory provides the energy value associated with complete ‘primary dispersion’ of microaggregates, which under normal field conditions is a direct practical measure of soil stability. This leads to a definition of the specific stability index (σ) of a soil which for the gleyed brown earth used in this work has the value (25±3) J g −1 .