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A Soil-Aggregate Crushing-Energy Meter¹

ABSTRACT

An improved technique for measuring the energy of crushing of soil aggregates was developed. Criteria for the improved system were: (i) energy must be measured quickly and accurately, (ii) a digital readout should be provided in convenient units, (iii) the system must perform tests both independently and in parallel with a previous method, (iv) the force on the sample at its initial fracture should be recorded, and (v) the system must be portable. The system developed consists mainly of two parts. A small crushing vise was constructed that can be hand-driven or mounted in existing test equipment. A computer module measures the force on the sample and the displacement of the crushing mechanism using a load cell and a displacement transducer. The force times displacement product is numerically integrated to find the crushing energy. The entire system fits easily into a hard-shelled camera case (530 by 430 by 190 mm) and is powered from a single 110 V, 60 Hz electrical outlet. The design criteria were met, and measurements taken by the new system agreed well with previous methods having a coefficient of determination (r²) of 0.999.

¹ Contribution from the Agricultural Research Service, USDA, in cooperation with the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. Department of Agronomy Contribution 82-386-J.

² Research Assistant, Agronomy Dep., and Graduate Student, Mechanical Engineering; Soil Scientist, ARS-USDA; and Professor, Mechanical Engineering Dep., respectively, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506.