University of Southern Philippines Foundation

Salinas Drive, Lahug, Cebu City

College of Engineering and Architecture

CE413 Lab

Name: Philip John Paul Palioc Experiment no.5

BSCE-4
Water Content of Soil by Oven Dry Method
Title

Theory

In outdoor natural environments, water is added to soil via rainfall or deliberate irrigation of plants. In
either case, soil moisture increases as more pores become filled with water at the expense of air. If all the
pores become filled with water, excess water will now leach downward through continuous soil pores,
until the rain or irrigation ceases. Leaching will continue until the water films within the pores are held by
the surface tension of soil colloids against the force of gravity. Such a situation is referred to as the soil
being at “field capacity” with respect to soil moisture. A soil at field capacity has pores partially filled with
air, surrounded by soil moisture films. Normally a soil at field capacity is optimal for plant growth and
aerobic soil microorganisms, since both air and water are available. In contrast, a saturated soil will create
waterlogged anaerobic conditions that can kill plants and suppress aerobic soil microbes, while
stimulating anaerobic microbes. The soil sample collected from the field should be of required quantity to
find the water content. The quantity of soil required is depends upon the maximum particle size and
gradation of soil sample.The oven dry method is widely used laboratory method determine the water
content or moisture content of given soil sample. It gives very accurate results.

Objectives

To determine water content by oven dry method.

Apparatus/Equipment`s

Hot Air OvenNon-corrodible air tight containers

Digital Weight MachineDesiccator

Tongs

Procedure

1. In first step, clean and dry the

containers and weigh them and note
down the mass of each container (M1).
Also note down the number of each
container along with its weight.
2. Collect the soil sample from field. Remove the top layer of soil and collect the wet soil from
bottom layers.
3. Fill the containers with required quantity of soil sample and weigh the each container and note
down its mass (M2).
4. Place the containers in hot air oven, arrange temperature to 110o ± 5o C and allow them to dry
for 24 hours.
5. After 24 hours turn off the oven and take out the containers using tongs.
6. Cool down the containers in desiccator for one hour.
7. After that weigh containers and note down the mass (m3) of each container.

Findings

The water content of sample soil specimen varies accordingly depending on the types of soil either clay or
sand.

Observation

The heating process or the use of oven releases the water content of the soil and evaporates.

Conclusion

Therefore oven drying is accurate on determining the water content of soil by heating it up and the water
evaporates, the remaining sample would be the dried soil already by weighing the sample and getting the
difference from moist sample to dried sample we can get the water content of the sample soil.