Derive a New Equation to Find the Total Dissolved Salts in Soil by Applying the Hydrometer Test

Abstract

The adding of water to the soil dissolved the salts (that could be soluble) by breaking its down into ions. These ions attract with the water molecules which in turn bind them tightly and that will increase the amount of matter per volume (density). So the (soil solution) is denser than the distilled water and this because of the dissolved salt. This is the point to start from it in this research to find the total dissolved salts. The hydrometer test In usual used to find the curve of the particle size distribution for the soil, in this research a new equation derived to find the total dissolved salts by applying the hydrometer test. This derivation built on the base of that the dissolved salts of the soil could be calculated from finding the density of the (soil solution) at the end of the sedimentation of the hydrometer test. In this paper this derived equation is present with a proposed procedure to find the total dissolved salts, and it give a very good result where the correlation factor equal to (0.988) and the root square equal to (0.9755). By applying the proposed procedure, the dissolved salts test could be easier, and this because it applied indirectly during applying the ordinary hydrometer test and that will make the test of the total dissolved salts faster and cheaper.