Methods to Determine the Saturated Surface-Dry Condition of Soils
SourceWhen cement is mixed with water and wet soils to stabilize the ground, the exact amount of water available for cement hydration must be known in order to assure the resulting strength of the hardened body.
This study proposes an accurate method of determining the saturated surface-dry condition of soil by which rational mixture designs are made possible. Though soil moisture conditions related to engineering properties such as liquid limit, plastic limit and shrinkage limit can be determined in terms of pF, the saturated surface-dry condition of soil has been neither defined nor determined.
The proposed method is to dry natural wet soils under constant drying conditions and estimate the saturated surface-dry condition of soils from changes in the drying rate with respect to soil moisture ratio, and can be verified by pF measurement.