DIN EN 13041:2012-01

This European Standard specifies an instrumental method for the routine determination of the physical properties, dry bulk density, water volume, air volume, shrinkage value and total pore space of soil improvers or growing media. This European Standard is not suitable for those materials which are very coarse, which do not make proper capillary contact or those which are pre-formed and non-particulate and have closed porosity. It is applicable to materials with particles ≤ 25 mm and/or flexible fibres ≤ 80 mm. This method is not applicable to liming materials and pre-formed materials like rockwool and foam slabs. The requirements of the standard may differ from the national legal requirements for the declaration of the products concerned. The sample is saturated in water and then equilibrated on a sand box at -50 cm water pressure head (-5 kPa). The sample is then transformed into double ring sample cylinders, re-wetted and equilibrated at -10 cm water pressure head (-1 kPa). After equilibration the physical properties are calculated from the wet and dry weights of the sample in the lower ring. In addition to -10 cm water pressure head (-1 kPa) it is also possible to apply -50 cm (-5 kPa) and -100 cm (-10 kPa) water pressure head, respectively. With respect to DIN EN 13041:2006-09, the water pressure head is given as the SI unit kPa throughout the whole text. The explanation to formula (3) and the values for the repeatability standard deviation and reproducibility relative standard deviation in the Tables B.1 through B.6 were corrected. The standard was also editorially revised and therewith adopted to the current design rules. The Committee responsible for this standard is NA 057-03-01 AA "Bodenverbesserungsmittel und Kultursubstrate" ("Soil improvers and growing media") at DIN.