[1]ZHU Yu,ZHANG Zhuodong,LIU Chang,et al.Comparison of Laser Diffraction Method and Pipette Method on Soil Particle Size Distribution Determination—A Case Study of Variously Degraded Kastanozem[J].Research of Soil and Water Conservation,2018,25(03):62-67,204.
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Research of Soil and Water Conservation[ISSN 1005-3409/CN 61-1272/P] Volume:
25
Number of periods:
2018 03
Page number:
62-67,204
Column:
Public date:
2018-04-10
- Title:
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Comparison of Laser Diffraction Method and Pipette Method on Soil Particle Size Distribution Determination—A Case Study of Variously Degraded Kastanozem
- Author(s):
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ZHU Yu, ZHANG Zhuodong, LIU Chang, ZHANG Xin
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Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
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- Keywords:
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particle size distribution; laser diffraction method; pipette method; scanning electron microscope; Kastanozem
- CLC:
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S152.3
- DOI:
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- Abstract:
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The laser diffraction method (LDM) has become a new method for particle size analysis. It is simple and convenient. However, its applicability and reliability have not been fully confirmed yet. In order to investigate the reliability and applicability of LDM, 21 Kastanozem soil samples with seven different degradation levels were collected and their particle size distributions were measured using both LDM and pipette method. The results showed that LDM underestimated the clay content and overestimated the sand and silt contents. The difference of the results measured by the two methods increased as particle sizes decreased. Regression analysis showed that there were high correlations between the sand and silt contents determined by these two methods, but there was no correlation for the clay content. Triangle coordinate diagram was applied to compare the textures determined by these two methods. The results agreed well after a transformation based on regression analysis compared to the original results. The morphology of soil particles was observed using a scanning electron microscope. The results showed that the shape and number of soil particles were different under different standard dispersive treatments which were involved in different methods, and would influence the results of particle size distribution. The applicability of LDM depends on the types of soil samples. If there are high precision requirements of clay content, LDM is not a good choice, in other cases, LDM is a feasible solution but the results should be carefully checked and transformed.