Soil Texture Triangle

Hydraulic Properties Calculator

% Sand
% Clay
Percent Sand
Percent Clay
Wilting point
(cm³ water/cm³ soil)
Field capacity
(cm³ water/cm³ soil)
Saturation
(cm³ water/cm³ soil)
Sat. hydraulic conduct.
(cm/hr)
Available water
(cm³ water/cm³ soil)
(in water/foot soil)

Click on the triangle
or
enter values for percent sand and percent clay and click on [Calculate]
to obtain the soil properties for the respective sand and clay.

Definitions

Permanent Wilting Point
is the water content at a matric potential of -1,500 kPa (-15 bars). It roughly corresponds to the lower limit of the Available Water.
This value is expressed in (units³ water/units³ soil).
Field Capacity
is the water content at the upper limit of the Available Water or drained upper limit. It roughly corresponds to a matric potential of -30 kPa (-0.3 bars) in most soils and to -10 kPa (-0.1 bars) in sandy soils.
This value is expressed in (units³ water / units³ soil).
Available Water (AW)
AW = (FC - PWP) This value is expressed in (units³ water / units³ soil), or rather, percent water.

Source:


(Reformatted by Robert L. Ficklin with all credits to the following:

Dr. K. E. Saxton
USDA/ARS
Pullman, WA 99164-6120
Phone: (509)335-2724
FAX: (509)335-7786
E-mail: ksaxton@wsu.edu
Homepage: http://www.bsyse.wsu.edu/faculty/saxton.html

Reference:


K.E. Saxton et al., 1986
Estimating generalized soil-water characteristics from texture.
Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J.
50(4):1031-1036

Programming and WWW realization:

Roger Nelson
E-mail: rnelson@mail.wsu.edu
Homepage: http://www.bsyse.wsu.edu/faculty/rnelson.html

Standalone program

As of Feb 18, 1997 this WWW page is now a standalone application.
Since the calculator no longer needs to communicate with our server, you now get immediate calculation results and you don't need to be connected to the network.

To download this utility to your own computer do the following.

  1. Create a directory on your hard disk (I.e. C:\grphtext).
  2. With the hydraulic properties calculator WWW page displayed, save the document to the directory with the filename "grphtext.htm" ("File/Save as" menu option on most browsers).
  3. Also save the triangle image to directory with the filename "texttri.gif" (On most browsers, click on the image with the right mouse button and select "Save image as").
  4. Send an e-mail to rnelson@mail.wsu.edu telling us that you use this utility and we will inform you of any updates. We may add additional soil property calculations.
  5. To use the utility, simply click on the grphtext.htm document icon.