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COMPARISON OF THE CERAMIC PLATE AND THE PRESSURE MEMBRANE TO DETERMINE THE 15 BAR WATER CONTENT OF SOILS
Author(s) -
WATERS PATRICIA
Publication year - 1980
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.1365-2389.1980.tb02093.x
Subject(s) - soil water , ceramic , bar (unit) , water content , peat , membrane , environmental science , materials science , soil science , geotechnical engineering , composite material , geology , chemistry , ecology , biochemistry , oceanography , biology
Summary Volumetric water contents of 17 mineral and 3 peat soils were measured at 15 bar pressure using the ceramic plate and the pressure membrane apparatus. There was no overall significant difference between the results from the two types of apparatus and both ranked the soils in essentially the same order. Although soils of high clay or organic matter content retained up to 13.5% more water on the ceramic plate than on the pressure membrane, available water capacity (AWC) of a clay soil would be decreased by only 1–2%, and that of a peat soil by 3–4%. Due to its greater reliability, the ceramic plate is an acceptable alternative to the pressure membrane when used to determine the 15 bar water content.