Determining the particle-size distribution of soil materials with the integral suspension pressure (ISP) method – lessons learned from PARIO measurements

The integral suspension pressure method (ISP) is an automated method to evaluate sedimentation experiments for particle size analysis of soil materials. In contrast to the traditional pipette and hydrometer methods, it is based on the continuous measurement of the suspension pressure at one depth in the sedimentation cylinder. The particle size distribution is determined by inverse simulation (Durner et al., 2017). The ISP is promising because it is semi-automated, continuous, based on process simulation, and does not hinge on oversimplifying assumptions. Most importantly, disturbance of the settling particles is minimized whereas disturbance is unavoidable when applying the traditional methods. ISP has been made commercially available by the METER Group AG (Munich) with a device called PARIO^TM. This implementation of ISP leads to a computerized system which yields quasi-continuous particle-size distribution curves.

Practical experience with PARIO has shown that, despite cutting-edge pressure sensor technology with a resolution of 0.1 Pa, the accuracy of the particle-size analysis was less than expected from a theoretical analysis, and that the time required to determine the clay content exceeded theoretical expectations. In this contribution, we analyze the reasons for disturbances of the methodology in practical applications and show ways to improve accuracy by compensating different errors. Furthermore, we show how an extended version of ISP called ISP+, which considers a single additional measurement in the objective function (Durner and Iden, 2019), leads to stable estimates of the clay fraction while considerably reducing the measurement time.

References:

Durner, W., S.C. Iden, and G. von Unold (2017): The integral suspension pressure method (ISP) for precise particle-size analysis by gravitational sedimentation., Water Resources Research, 53, 33-48, doi:10.1002/2016WR019830.

Durner, W., and S.C. Iden: ISP+: improving the Integral Suspension Pressure method by an additional measurement, Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 21, EGU2019-12761, 2019.