Deconvolution of Differential Particle-Size Distribution Curves for Vertisols

• Published in: Eurasian soil science 2019-09, Vol.52 (9), p.1112-1121
• Main Authors: Vodyanitskii, Yu. N., Milanovskiy, E. Yu, Morgun, E. G., Savichev, A. T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boundaries; Classification; Deconvolution; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Indicators; Particle size distribution; Size distribution; Soil Physics; Vertisols; Width
• ISSN: 1064-2293; 1556-195X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1064229319070147

The deconvolution procedure for splitting the initial particle-size distribution spectrum into constituent fractions makes it possible to refine the traditional indicators of particle-size distribution and gives us new information about the properties of individual particle-size fractions. Owing to the deconvolution, it is possible to identify fractions that remain “invisible” upon the traditional visual analysis of the initial particle-size distribution spectra. The new indicators include the average diameter of the particle-size fraction d aver , the dispersion value D of each fraction, and the convergence index of the neighboring fractions h . Deconvolution helps us to characterize the fractions not by their size boundaries, but by the average particle diameter. Deconvolution has shown that the distribution of major particle-size fractions in Vertisols is consistent with the boundaries of the particle-size factions according to the international classification system and is not consistent with the boundaries of the particle-size classes in the classification by Kachinskii (Russia), in which the width of the classes is variable (index F is either 2 or 5). The advantage of the international classification of particle-size fractions is the same width of separate size classes with a constant F value ( F = 3.2).