Reference material for the measurement of soil hydraulic properties

Quality control of the measurement of soil hydraulic properties (water retention curve, saturated hydraulic conductivity) using soil cores is not very common in soil physics laboratories. The missing quality control in the labs might be due to the lack of a suitable reference material for the measurement of soil hydraulic properties (SHP). However, a standardized quality of these measurements is needed, especially when generated data from different laboratories are used.

So far no satisfying reference material has been presented that can be used for quality control during the measurement of SHP. Reference material should have a rigid pore system and pore surfaces properties that do not change over time. Additionally, the reference material should be very sensitive to provide a sufficient quality control for the measurement of SHP.

We present sintered glass cylinders with a defined pore size distribution that were tested in the laboratory for reproducibility. After a standardized cleaning procedure of the glass cylinders, water contents after equilibration at -63 hPa (field capacity) showed reasonably low standard deviations. Thus, it seems promising that these cylinders can be used as reference material for the measurement of the water retention curve.

First Results of repeated saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements (Ks) of the same sintered glass cylinders showed larger variability and an increasing trend over the time. Currently the reason for this trend is unknown. Therefore, it is worked on standardizing procedures of using the reference cylinders and on cleaning the cylinders to improve the reproducibility. The results show how sensitive the measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity is and that we need to put more emphasis on quality control in our work.