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Particle-Size Distribution Characterization for the Coarse Fraction of a Granite Soil. I. A model.¹

ABSTRACT

Many central African soils are sandy single-grain-structure materials developing under semiarid conditions, and derived from the underlying granite. To obtain a useful size distribution function for the nonclay fraction required a quantitative model for granite disintegration.

Methods of characterizing particulate distributions are briefly reviewed with reference to the mechanisms giving rise to them. J. G. Bennett's (1936) description of brittle solid disintegration has been extended to yield the incomplete gamma function as a descriptor of the product of granite disintegration. This is discussed and compared with the log-normal and Weibull functions in terms of postulated mechanisms.

It is concluded that the mechanism presented here more closely approximates the disintegration process than those yielding the above two functions, and that the resulting incomplete gamma function should be a reasonable basic descriptor of the particle-size distribution of disintegrating granite.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Agriculture, Univ. of Rhodesia, Salisbury. Project no. 1329.

² Lecturer in Soil Science, Dep. of Agriculture, Univ. of Rhodesia.