Ridley, A. M. & Burland, J. B. (1993). Giotechnique 43, No.

2, 321-324

TECHNICAL NOTE

A new instrument for the measurement of soil moisture suction

A. M. RIDLEY* and J. B. BURLAND*

KEYWORDS: field instrumentation; groundwater; instruments are shown in Fig. l(a): they comprise
laboratory equipment; laboratory tests; partial satura- a porous disc and a measurement device (usually
tion; pore pressures. a manometer or a pressure gauge) separated by a
fluid reservoir.
The flow of water in a saturated porous
INTRODUCTION
medium is from a point of higher pore water pres-
The generally accepted definitions of soil mois-
sure to a point of lower pore water pressure. The
ture suction are those given by Aitchison &
flow will continue until both points are at an
Richards (1965). Quantitatively, the soil moisture
equal pore water pressure that lies between the
suction is represented by the difference between
original pressures. In instruments such as the
the ambient air pressure and the soil pore water
suction plate and tensiometer the water and air
pressure. In soils with a measurable suction the
pressures are initially both atmospheric. The
latter will always be less than the former; more
negative pore water pressure in the soil causes a
specifically, when the air pressure is atmospheric
flow of water from the instrument into the soil
the pore water pressure will be negative.
when the soil is placed on the porous stone. In all
Instruments for the measurement of soil mois-
the available versions of this type of equipment
ture suction have suffered from a number of dis-
the highest suction that can be sustained in the
advantages. Devices that measure the suction
directly do so by actually measuring the pore
water pressure, but either they are restricted to
measuring a very low suction (e.g. the
tensiometer), or to measure a high suction they
Soil sample--
require the use of a raised air pressure (pressure
plate). Devices that are used to measure a high
suction at atmospheric air pressure are called Negative
indirect because they are calibrated against some pressure
I
other physical property, such as humidity (the
Water reservoir-.y”“‘A
psychrometer), absorption (filter paper) or electri-
cal resistance (gypsum or thermal block) which is
also related to the soil moisture suction. Most of
the available methods of suction measurement High air pressure
suffer from a ‘slow’ response time (at best several
hours, and often weeks or even months). Also, the
accuracy of many of them is not good, particu-
larly in the suction range lOC-1000 kPa. Table 1
summarizes the most common techniques of soil
suction measurement.
0 rmgseal
METHODS OF DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF Pressure
SOIL SUCTION transducer
Instruments that measure soil suction directly u
do so by an exchange of water between the
/ l--F’ushing
instrument and the soil. The driving force that 15 bar (air entry)
causes the exchange is the negative pore water ceramic Pump
pressure. The essential features of this group of Water reservoir----.

-
Discussion on this Technical Note closes 1 October W
1993; for further details see p. ii.
* Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medi- Fig. 1. Direct measurement of soil suction: (a) ten-
cine. siometer; (b) pressure plate apparatus
321
322 RIDLEY AND BURLAND

Table 1. Suction measurement techniques

Suction Principal Direct/ Range: kPa Equilibrium

value* usage indirect time

Vacuum dessicator Total Lab. Indirect lo’-106 Months

Psychrometer Total Field Indirect 300-7000 Months
Filter paper Total Field Indirect 1000-3oooo Weeks
Matrix Lab. Indirect 30-30 ooo 1 week
Porous block Matrix Field Indirect 30-3000 Weeks
Thermal block Matrix Field Indirect O-175 Days
Suction plate Matrix Lab. O-90 Hours
Tensiometer Matrix O-90 Hours
Pressure plate Matrix O-5000 Hours
Osmotic tensiometer Matrix O-1500 Days

*As defined by Aitchison & Richards (1965).

reservoir is 60-100 kPa, depending on the purity volume of water in the reservoir or an increase in
of the water involved. At a higher suction air the size of the soil sample.
bubbles form within the reservoir. Once an air The pressure plate has found no application in
void is present, any subsequent flow of water will the field because it is not practical to introduce
result in the air bubble expanding or contracting, high ambient air pressures in situ.
depending on the direction of flow, and the
suction will not be transmitted to the measure- THE NEW INSTRUMENT
ment device. Stannard (1992) has reviewed the Tabor (1979) showed that the theoretical tensile
theory and behaviour of this group of instru- strength of pure water is about -5000 atm
ments. (-500 MPa). In practice, small amounts of dis-
The formation of air voids in the measuring solved gas give rise to the nucleation of cavities at
system can be prevented by the raising of the much higher pressures. However, Temperley &
negative pore water pressure into the positive Chambers (1946) reported that carefully degassed
range. Hilf (1956) showed that raising the air liquids in smooth-walled containers possess
pressure around a soil sample causes the pore tensile strengths of up to 10% of the theoretical
water pressure in the sample to rise by an equal value.
amount. Therefore, if the air pressure is raised by The instrument designed at Imperial College
an amount greater than the magnitude of the and reported here uses an Entran EPX-500 stain-
negative water pressure in the soil sample, the less steel miniature pore water pressure trans-
pore water pressure will be positive and measur- ducer with a working range of up to 3500 kPa.
able. This is shrouded by a stainless steel sheath fitted
The pressure plate apparatus (Fig. l(b)) adopts with a porous stone (15 bar air entry value). The
this principle. The water pressure in the reservoir shroud has been machined to provide a gap
is raised to a value in excess of the anticipated between the porous stone and the pressure trans-
suction by the raising of the ambient air pressure, ducer of -250 pm (see Fig. 2). This gives a total
and consequently the negative water pressure in volume of free water in the reservoir of about
the sample is raised by an amount to a positive
value which is less than the water pressure in the 15 bar ceramic Scale of mm
reservoir. Again, flow occurs from the reservoir 0 5 10
Entran Ltd EPX series
into the soil sample until an equilibrium is estab- electronic pressure transducer
lished. If, immediately after application of the air
Stainless steel sheath
pressure, the reservoir is vented to atmospheric
pressure, the water pressure in the sample will be I
greater than the water pressure in the instrument
and flow will occur from the sample to the instru-
ment.
In a single determination using these tech-
niques, a small error will be caused by the move-
ment of water. Flow from the measurement
system into the soil sample will cause an under-
prediction of the suction and flow in the other
direction will cause an overprediction, but this
I Thread

Water reservoir
I
0 ring seal
connection

effect can be minimized by a reduction in the Fig. 2. The new instrument

 MEASUREMENT OF SOIL MOISTURE SUCTION 323

Time: min line. When equilibrium had been established, the

drainage valve was closed and the cell pressure
1 was reduced to atmospheric pressure. The suction
was monitored with the new instrument until
equilibrium had been reached. In the measure-
ment of the suction using the new instrument it
was anticipated that the stainless steel diaphragm
on the transducer would follow Hooke’s law and
behave in a linearly elastic manner over the
working range. Consequently, it was assumed
that the calibration for the transducer derived for
positive pressures could be extrapolated into the
negative range. After the suction had been mea-
14ooL sured the cell pressure was restored to its original
value under undrained conditions and the back-
Fig. 3. Response of the new instrument
pressure was measured. The difference between
the cell pressure and the back-pressure gives the
3 mm3. This small volume appears to inhibit the effective stress in the sample. The suctions mea-
formation of air bubbles in the reservoir, thereby sured with the new instrument agree excellently
increasing the range of direct suction measure- with the effective stresses measured in this
ment beyond that achieved by other instruments. manner, as shown in Fig. 4. The new instrument
Saturation of the porous stone was achieved may be used to give reliable measurements of
using an Imperial College high-pressure water suction up to - 1500 kPa; the extrapolation from
pump capable of delivering a pressure of positive to negative pressures has been justified.
6000 kPa.
Soil suction was measured with the instrument
mounted in a hole at the centre of a horizontal CONCLUSIONS
plate, and the porous stone facing upwards and By using a miniature pressure transducer and
slightly proud of the plate. The soil sample was minimizing the volume of water between the
placed on the horizontal plate; good contact was active face of the transducer and the porous
maintained between the porous stone and the stone, soil moisture suction can be measured
sample by use of a soft spring inserted behind the directly up to 1500 kPa with a response time of a
instrument. A typical response is shown in Fig. 3. few minutes. By reduction of the volume of water
The level of suction measured was about - 1200 and use of a membrane over the surface of the
kPa and the response time was less than 5 porous stone, it may be possible to increase
minutes. further the measurable suction range. The new
instrument should result in much quicker and

EVALUATION OF THE NEW INSTRUMENT

In order to evaluate the instrument it was
necessary to check its values against known Effectivestress:kPa

values of suction. An accurate soil suction can be 300 600 900 1200 1500
n
I I I I I
generated in a clay sample by isotopic consoli-
dation in a triaxial apparatus with controlled cell
pressure and back-pressure. If the cell pressure is
then released under undrained conditions, a
suction will instantaneously develop in the
m
sample equal to the effective stress in the sample 4
before unloading. A clay sample is used to inhibit h, -6OO-
;
the formation of air bubbles in the soil pores. ::
A high-pressure triaxial cell was modified to g
incorporate a negative water pressure instrument $ -9oo-
in the base pedestal. Drainage from the 38 mm I
z
dia. sample was provided by way of the top cap.
2
The sample was trimmed from a 9 inch dia. -1200-
kaolin ‘cake’ prepared by one-dimensional con-
solidation from a slurry. It was subsequently con-
solidated isotropically to a known effective stress
by use of a cell pressure and a constant back-
pressure of 200 kPa applied through the drainage Fig. 4. Evaluation of the new instrument
324 RIDLEY AND BURLAND

more accurate laboratory measurements of soil REFERENCES

suction. It should also find a wide application in
the field.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work presented forms part of a continuing
programme of research funded by the Ground
Engineering Division of the Transport Research
Laboratory. The Authors are grateful
K. Brady of TRL for his support and encour-
agement during the work. Thanks are also given
to S. Ackerley and the technical staff of the soil
mechanics section at Imperial College for their
unrivalled skill in producing the instrument pre-
sented. The work presented here might not have
evolved at this time were it not for the astute
observation of J. Standing; his early discussions
on the subject are much appreciated.
Aitchison, G. D. & Richards, B. G. (1965). A broad scale
study of moisture conditions in pavement subgrades
throughout Australia. 2: Techniques adopted for the
measurement of moisture variables. Moisture equi-
libria and moisture changes in soils beneath covered
areas. Australia: Butterworth.
Hilf, J. W. (1956). An inoestigation ofpore-water pressure
in compacted cohesive soils. US Bureau of Recla-
to mation, Technical Memorandum 654.
Stannard, D. I. (1992). Tensiometers-theory, construc-
tion and use. Geotech. Testing J. 15, No. 1,48-58.
Tabor, D. (1979). Gases, liquids and solids, pp. 229-233.
Cambridge University Press.
Temperley, H. N. V. & Chambers, G. (1946). The behav-
iour of water under hydrostatic tension. Proc. Phys.
Sot. London 53,420-436.