Automated soil particle size analyzer based on gamma-ray attenuation
Application of gamma-ray attenuation principles permits the determination of density and water content of a material. Moreover, this technique also allows one to determine particle size distribution, when particles are falling in a liquid medium according to Stokes law. Based on these principles, computerized equipment was developed to perform a fully automatic analysis of soil particle size distribution. This equipment's main advantage is the capability to analyze ten soil samples automatically, each one in 18 min, the resulting output is a complete curve of soil particle size distribution, ranging from 2 ?m to 2 mm. Another feature of this equipment is its fast soil granulometric fraction analysis (at ten samples per h), which determines the fractions of clay, silt, and sand. Results obtained with the gamma-ray technique showed an excellent correlation with the pipette method.
granulometry soil physics stoke's law