Theoretical and experimental substantiation of a thermogravimetric method for assessing the water-retention capacity and specific surface area of disperse systems

Abstract

A conceptually new instrumental method has been proposed for the determination of the sorption fragment of the soil water retention curve and the specific surface area of soils and sediments by drying samples at different temperatures, which is based on fundamental models for relative air humidity and thermodynamic water potential (Ψ) as functions of temperature (T). The basic equation for the calculation of water potential in the first (linear) approximation is as follows: Ψ = Q–аТ, where Q is the specific heat of evaporation, and a is the physically substantiated parameter related to the initial relative air humidity in the laboratory. The setting of model parameters necessary for quantitative calculations has been performed from tabulated data for the saturated water vapor pressure as a function of temperature and results of an independent experiment with gradual air heating and synchronous automated control of air humidity and temperature with DS 1923 hydrochrons. The potentialities of the method have been demonstrated using literature data on the dehydration of soil colloids and our own results on the drying of a silty sandy soil (Arenosol) from Dubai, a light loamy soddy-podzolic soil (Albic Retisol) and a low-moor peat soil (Histosol) from Moscow oblast, and a loamy ordinary chernozem (Haplic Chernozem) from Krasnodar region.