木公木白

Paraffin Technique for Measuring Soil Bulk Density

Soil is key to the growth of our plants.

The test process is as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGRRSaxUgxI

The testing equipment is as follows:

Introduction:  ASTM C20/C134/C437  

The ratio of dry soil weight to volume in a certain volume of natural soil and it’s called soil density, also known as bulk density, in g/cm3.

In general, soil bulk density is always between 1.0 and 1.9 g/㎝³.

When the soil bulk density is between 1.1-1.4g / ㎝³, it is suitable for plant growth; if the bulk density is greater than 1.4g / ㎝³,

the plant will grow poorly, because the soil will become granulated, the root development of the plant will be blocked,

ventilation and drainage will be Getting worse.

Principle:

Taking the natural soil squeezed not by external influence and wrapping it with wax,

then weighing the air-weight and water-weight to get the weight and volume, and then the bulk density can be calculated.

Materials: wax granule, sewing line, wax furnace, balance, knife

Methods:

1. Take the soil clod about 200 ㎝³ back from field for testing bulk density;
2. Place the soil clod in the shade for drying, and get some clods dried to constant weight.
3. Flattening the rough surface and squeezed part of the air dried soli clod by knife, and the final soil cold is about 8 ㎝³ and weight it as W1.
4. Tie the dried soil clod by sewing line, put the wax granule in wax furnace (the melting point is about 60℃), and put the soil cold in liquid wax and  then take out immediately. If the surface of soil clod is too dry, the surface can be wetted by spraying, and it also can avoid bubbles adhering to the surface.
5. When immersing the soil clod in fluid wax, it should avoid staying in it. After cooling it, and then put it in fluid wax again until the surface of soil clod is wrapped completely by wax, and put the soil clod on the balance for weighing, the weight is memorized as W2.
6. To avoid bubbles existing in wax, the wax-wrapped sample can be placed under heat sources to remove excess wax.
7. Immersing the wax-sealing soil clod in water and the balance will show the water-weight, and represent by W3.
8. the calculating formula is as follows:              
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