Dispersive soils which occur in many parts of the world are easily erodible and segregate in water pose serious problems of stability of earth and earth retaining structures. The mechanism of dispersivity of soils is reasonably well understood. However there is simple method to identify the dispersivity of the soils and even more difficult to quantify the dispersivity. Visual classification, At...

An electronic meter to measure surface seawater density is presented. It is based on the measurement of the difference in displacements of a surface level probe and a weighted float, which according to Archimedes' law depends on the density of the water. The displacements are simultaneously measured using a high-accuracy magnetostrictive sensor, to which a custom electronic board provides a wir...

With increasing concern for the pollution potential of farm wastes, there is a corresponding need for rapid and robust methods of analysis for animal manures. In order to study the rapid testing methods based on the relationship between nutrient concentrations and physicochemical properties, diverse samples (n=105) were used in this study. The results indicated strong linear relations between s...

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (V. Ferro 1537-5110/$ e see front matter a 2010 IAgrE doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2010.03.013 A comparison between laser diffraction method (LDM) and the sieve-hydrometer method (SHM) was carried out for 228 soil samples representing a different texture classification sampled in a Sicilian basin. The analysis demonstrated that the sand con...