Application of the effective medium approximation for determining water contents through GPR in coarse-grained soil materials

Abstract

We investigate the relation between the dielectric constant of soils and their volumetric water content to be used in non-invasive measures of water content, like Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). After modeling the porous medium as a Multi Indicator structure, we derive the effective permittivity of the soil as function of the water content by adopting the effective medium approximation. The derived formula is tested against controlled, laboratory experiments. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.