<p>As Friddy says, if it's not constrained and relatively intact you're going to have issues with pore volume calculations. Generally the saturate-and-dry method, using a soil core, will give you both the water mass and the mass of sediment. Then you'd use the average density of soil (which will depend somewhat on the minerology, and if it's got lots of organic matter--which can be calculated by burning off OM in a 400 C oven) to get at the particle volume. The known volume of the core minus the estimated particle volume would give you the pore volume.</p>

<p>Googling bulk density and particle density should find lots of info on how exactly to do this calculation.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-15T20:59:04.380Z
2019-08-15T20:59:04.380Z
DataWrangler
<p>I have got confused</p>

<p>I took 100g soil in a funnel with filter paper. poured 100 ml water and collected the drained water in a calibrated cylinder.</p>

<p>Water added in funnel = 100 ml
Water collected in cylinder = 39 ml.
Water retained by soil = 61ml.
Thus soil WHC = 61ml/100g soil</p>

<p>Is this same as Soil Pore volume? If not how should I calculate soil pore volume by water volume method?</p>

<soil><soil-moisture>
Difference between soil Water Holding Capacity and soil pore volume?
Hassan Shahid
# Difference between soil Water Holding Capacity and soil pore volume?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-30)

I have got confused

I took 100g soil in a funnel with filter paper. poured 100 ml water and collected the drained water in a calibrated cylinder.

Water added in funnel = 100 ml
Water collected in cylinder = 39 ml.
Water retained by soil = 61ml.
Thus soil WHC = 61ml/100g soil

Is this same as Soil Pore volume? If not how should I calculate soil pore volume by water volume method?

**Tags:** soil, soil-moisture


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-08-15. Score: 1

As Friddy says, if it's not constrained and relatively intact you're going to have issues with pore volume calculations. Generally the saturate-and-dry method, using a soil core, will give you both the water mass and the mass of sediment. Then you'd use the average density of soil (which will depend somewhat on the minerology, and if it's got lots of organic matter--which can be calculated by burning off OM in a 400 C oven) to get at the particle volume. The known volume of the core minus the estimated particle volume would give you the pore volume.

Googling bulk density and particle density should find lots of info on how exactly to do this calculation.


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