Measurement of soil water Using Ground penetrating Radar

Published on 20 May 2022. Written by Vinay Raj

It is very important to measure soil water content. The change in the content of water in the soil will have significant influence over the deformation characteristics and strength of the soil. It also affects groundwater flow and surface constructions.

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There are different methods to measure the water content in the soil some of them are, neutron instrument, oven drying method, and TDR (Time Domain Reflectometers). All this method requires physical installations in the soil and are not suitable for disturbed soil. So, there is a requirement for the new and improved method.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a geophysical method which generates the images from the electromagnetic radar pulses. This is a non-destructive method using electromagnetic waves in the microwave band within the radio spectrum and this helps us to detect the reflected signals from the underground structure. It can also be used in areas including rocks, soil, ice, snow, water, etc… The technology of the GPR is very similar to the seismic and sonar.

Requirements:

Knowledge of Geotechnical Engineering.

Knowledge of Remote sensing and Imaging.

Knowledge of Ferre Equation and Topp Equation.

Project Implementation:

1. Setup the equipment on the ground surface.
2. Collect the dataset with GPR measurements.
3. Collect the data in the form of images.
4. Use the data to evaluate the adaptability of the empirical formulae.  
5. Collect the data using different frequencies.
6. Collect the overall data and perform data processing.

Software Requirements:

• MATLAB is used for data processing

Advantages:

• This GPR method is also used in the grounds having hard rocks, etc...
• It is also used to detect the void area.
• To detect objects that are buried.
• To detect the thickness of concrete or asphalt.

Conclusion:

From this project, we can get the water content of the soil of any condition. This test is very easy as this test does not include the excavation of the soil and many of the other mechanical method. This is also recommended as we will not disturb the soil structure and the data is collected from the natural soil sample. Not only water content but also, we can search the different types of the minerals as the velocities of the reflected waves are different for the different minerals and also the GPR can be set to different frequencies.  

Kit required to develop Measurement of soil water Using Ground penetrating Radar:

• NA

Technologies you will learn by working on Measurement of soil water Using Ground penetrating Radar:

• Water
• Non-Destructive Test
• Geotechnical Engineering

Any Questions?