15-Bar High-Pressure Ceramic Plate Extractor
Applies regulated pneumatic pressure from 10 to 1500 kPa across soil retaining rings.
Agricultural Engineering / Soil Moisture Retention pF
FREE TO EXPLORELABORATORY 13 · AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
Soil Moisture Retention Characteristic (pF Curves) & Pressure Plate Extraction
Determine the soil water retention curve (pF curve) of an agricultural loam using a porous ceramic pressure plate extractor across varying matric suctions. Explore interactive farm machinery simulation, irrigation hydraulics, and agricultural engineering telemetry.
FARM MACHINERY · SOIL & WATER · POST-HARVEST · STRUCTURES
Your virtual agricultural engineering laboratory.
VOLUMETRIC WATER CONTENT Θ—
FIELD & TEST CELL TELEMETRY
Ready to sample with ln(Suction ψ) = 2.2 ln(kPa).
Adjust ln(Suction ψ), then execute agricultural trial.
Agricultural engineering telemetry and biosystems states are evaluated rigorously using 64-bit IEEE 754 precision. Residuals reflect ordinary least-squares regression across successive observations. Continuous data structures support high-fidelity agricultural and environmental modeling.
Agricultural assumptions and boundary condition limits
Pressure plate extraction requires several days to reach true hydraulic equilibrium at high suctions. Evaluated using silt loam soil cores (dry bulk density 1.35 g/cm³, porosity 0.48 m³/m³) placed in a 15-bar pressure plate extractor.
Agricultural apparatus & field instrumentation sensors.
Saturated High-Flow Ceramic Porous Plate
Allows liquid water passage while preventing air breakthrough up to its rated bubble pressure.
Precision Pressure Regulators & Manometers
Maintains constant chamber air pressure with 0.5 kPa accuracy.
Undisturbed Soil Retaining Core Rings
Confines soil cores (5.0 cm diameter, 1.0 cm height) on the ceramic plate surface.
Forced-Draft Drying Oven (105°C)
Dries soil samples to constant weight after pressure equilibration.
High-Precision Analytical Balance (0.001 g)
Measures soil core wet mass at each equilibrium suction stage.
FOLLOW THE METHOD
A reason behind every step.
Determine the soil water retention curve (pF curve) of an agricultural loam using a porous ceramic pressure plate extractor across varying matric suctions. Standardized parameter settings: 1.0, 1.6, 2.2, 2.8, 3.4, 4.0 ln(kPa).
01
Ceramic Plate Pre-Saturation
Submerge the porous ceramic plate in de-aired water for 24 hours to ensure 100% saturation of all ceramic microscopic pores, verifying zero air entry.
02
Soil Core Loading & Saturation
Place soil sample rings onto the plate, add water to the plate surface, and allow soil cores to saturate by capillarity from the bottom for 18 hours.
03
Initial Suction Chamber Seal
Transfer the loaded plate into the pressure vessel, connect the effluent drain tube, seal the chamber lid, and apply initial pneumatic pressure P = 2.7 kPa (ln ψ = 1.0).
04
Hydraulic Equilibrium Attainment
Maintain pressure until outflow from the drain tube ceases completely (typically 24 to 48 hours), confirming thermodynamic equilibrium between soil water and air pressure.
05
Sample Extraction & Weighing
Quickly depressurize the chamber, extract replicate soil rings, record wet mass, and oven-dry at 105°C for 24 hours to calculate volumetric water content θ.
06
Multi-Pressure Retention Curve
Repeat testing across suctions corresponding to ln ψ = 1.6, 2.2, 2.8, 3.4, and 4.0 (up to 54.6 kPa in the ceramic extractor), plotting θ versus ln ψ to evaluate λ_ret.
YOUR NOTEBOOK · 0 OBSERVATIONS
Turn measurements into agricultural engineering insight.
Points are your recorded observations. The solid regression line validates Soil Moisture Retention pF mathematical scaling.
LINEAR REGRESSION FIT · y = mx + b
θ = -λ_ret · ln(ψ) + θ_0 = -0.0650 · ln(ψ) + 0.4800
| # | Logarithm of Matric Suction ln(ψ) (ln(kPa)) | Volumetric Water Content θ (m³/m³) | ln(Matric suction ψ in kPa) | Volumetric water content θ (m³/m³) | Remove |
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