RELIABILITY OF MERCURY INTRUSION POROSIMETRY RESULTS FOR SOILS

Verification of reliability of mercury intrusion porosimetry results for natural soils by confronting a volume of pores filled with water at particular pF with volumes of corresponding pores determined by mercury porosimetry/particle density was discussed. It was stated that a positive value of the difference between the mentioned volumes constitutes the sufficient evidence of sample destruction during drying and/or mercury intrusion, while the negative value constitutes the necessary condition to state that there are no such changes. Some of our preliminary results and literature data were considered from this point of view. The comparison of respective volumes has led to the conclusion that one can assume the lack of sample structure changes during air- or oven-drying/mercury intrusion only in the case of sands.