A New Approach for Smoothing Soil Grain Size Curve Determined by Hydrometer
- 1 Geology Department College of Science, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
- 2 Geology Department College of Science, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
Abstract
In hydrometer analysis for soil grain size distribution, usually , the grains passing sieve No. 200 (<0.074 mm) are used. However, the hydrometer results occasionally give diameters greater than 0.074 mm. This event causes a mismatch in the curve of grain size distribution obtained from sieving and hydrometer methods. Hence, a new approach is proposed for smoothing soil grain size curve determined by hydrometer using Excel-2007 with simple statistical methods. The treatments show that in case of large sizes , there are big differences between the values of soil grain diameters smoothed by Excel-2007 in comparison and the values measured by references. These differences generally decrease with decreasing soil grain size diameters. The statistical treatments also divulge whether the hydrometer results are accurate or not. Furthermore , a general equation has been derived to estimate values of K factor , which is used for calculating the grain diameters in hydrometer analysis. The equation can be applied for any specific gravity of soils and for wide range temperatures.
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