Water content is a land scale scale size. It is largely used in geotechnics and geology, mainly because of its enormous influence on soil mechanical strength characteristics.

It is defined as the amount, usually expressed as a percentage, of water present in the soil relative to the solid phase. In formulas, expressing with M w {\displaystyle M_{w}} the mass of water in the soil and with M s {\displaystyle M_{s}} the mass of solid grains is defined as:

w = M w M s % {\displaystyle w={\frac {M_{w}}{M_{s}}}\%}

Its value is naturally zero if the soil is free of water and normally ranges between 20% and 70% for clay soils, however, to reach very high values, as in the case of clay Mexico City where it can reach even 300%.

Experimentally, the water content is measured by comparing the weight of freshly ground soil and the weight of the same sample dried at 104 ° C for 24 hours: the second measurement represents exactly the weight of the solid part only while the difference between the two measurements is the weight of the water originally contained in the sample. Notemodify wikitesto

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