20 Apr 2026

Utilizing Laser Diffraction for Soil Particle Size Analysis

Abstract: This US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) technical note (TN) describes the process and methodology for utilizing laser diffraction to analyze soil samples. The effort fulfills an Intelligent Environmental Battlefield Awareness (IEBA) project’s need to validate the performance of a global soil boundary mapping methodology that was developed as part of the Integration task. To validate the methodology, soil samples were classified by grain size into a texture class and compared against soil maps created for a given study area. The goal of this effort was to develop a repeatable standard operating procedure for the Horiba Partica LA-960V2, a laser diffraction particle size analyzer, that would allow rapid soil analysis to be conducted by individuals without a soil science background. The Horiba Partica has been used for soil particle size analysis, but it is not common in the field. Therefore, only limited documentation details the analysis protocol for the system. This TN will discuss the methodology used to analyze soil samples and the challenges encountered with the Horiba Partica.