Dielectric Analysis Model for Measurement of Soil Moisture Water Content Using Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography

Abstract

Electromagnetic methods have been widely used in the measurement of the water content of the soil. These methods utilize the permittivity as electrical properties of the soil, to determine the moisture content of the soil. Since the measurements are carried out indirectly, a calibration between permittivity and the water content of the soil is needed. Generally, the calibration method is generated by using an empirical and mixing model. This study presents a proposed model of calibration by using a normalization approach to calibrate the value of the permit-tivity of the water content of the soil. Then the model was applied using electrical capacitance volume tomography (ECVT) to image soil water content during infiltration of water in a soil column. Granular and silty sand were used as soil material in the experiments. The result showed that the model for measuring moisture water content can be seen in each layer during soil water infiltration in the soil column.