Stability of Soil Pores During Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry

Summary Mercury intrusion porosimetry is one of the techniques used to measure pore size distributions of dry soil samples. It is known that incorrect pore size distributions can be obtained for some porous materials due to sample damage occurring during mercury intrusion, but little evidence relating to soil samples has been published. The pore size distributions of aggregates from three soils, differing in texture, strength and porosity, were measured after heating to 300 °C by mercury intrusion porosimetry. After the first intrusion, all of the intruded mercury was removed from each sample by heating under vacuum. Samples were then re‐intruded. The pore size distribution curves for both intrusions were very similar, indicating an absence of sample damage during the first intrusion run.