ABSTRACT
Moisture characteristic curves for inert porous materials have been used for assessing their pore size distribution while characteristics for shrinking and swelling materials with non-polar liquid have been obtained for the same purpose. Changes of the pore size distribution in subsequent cycles of wetting and drying with water have also been used for assessing structural stability in soils. Here we describe a procedure for studying the total effect of absorption and desorption of water on pore size distribution of a soil and subsequently the stability of soil structure. For this, characteristic curves with a non-polar liquid (alcohol) have been obtained for assessing the initial soil structure and followed by moisture characteristic curves for cycles of drying and wetting.
