NUCLEAR LABORATORY SETUP FOR MEASURING THE SOIL WATER CONTENT IN ENGINEERING PHYSICS TEACHING LABORATORIES
Main Article Content
Abstract
One important soil parameter that is measured in many engineering, geology, soil and environmental science investigations is the soil water content (θ). For example, θ influences the assessment of soil strength, hydraulic conductivity, groundwater recharge, and soil aeration condition. Measurement of θ is essential for tracking and managing a number of soil processes. A quick and non-destructive method for determining μ in soils with drastically different compositions is the gammaray attenuation (GRA) approach. However, lab physics classes rarely cover GRA. An experiment involving the measurement of θ using a teaching GRA apparatus is proposed. A Geiger-Müller detector, a radiation counter, and a radioactive source with a 37Cs decay were the components of the experimental setup. Four different granulometric compositions of soil samples were examined. The transmitted gamma-ray photon intensity and θ were found to have strong linear relationships (correlation coefficients ranging from -0.95 to -0.98). There were variations in the soil porosity between the traditional and GRA techniques, ranging from around 7.8% to about 18.2%. Furthermore, a robust linear correlation (correlation coefficients ranging from 0.90 to 0.98) was noted between the GRA and the conventional gravimetric technique for measuring θ. The effectiveness of the teaching GRA apparatus in measuring θ was confirmed. Additionally, the device enables undergraduate students from a variety of subject areas to be introduced to a few significant facets of the study of contemporary physics.
Downloads
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
References
Hillel, D. Environmental Soil Physics; Academic Press: San Diego, CA, USA, 1998.
Pimentel, D.; Berger, B.; Filiberto, D.; Newton, M.; Wolfe, B.; Karabinakis, E.; Clark, S.;
Poon, E.; Abbett, E.; Nandagopal, S. Water Resources: Agricultural and Environmental
Issues. BioScience 2004, 54, 909–918. [CrossRef]
Tarawally, M.A.; Medina, H.; Frómeta, M.E.; Alberto Itza, C. Field Compaction at
Different Soil-Water Status: Effects on Pore Size Distribution and Soil Water Characteristics
of a Rhodic Ferralsol in Western Cuba. Soil Tillage Res. 2004, 76, 95–103. [CrossRef]
Lal, R.; Shukla, M.K. Principles of Soil Physics; Marcel Dekker, Inc.: New York, NY, USA,
Reichardt, K.; Timm, L.C. Soil, Plant and Atmosphere: Concepts, Processes and
Applications; Springer Nature: Cham, Switzerland, 2020.
Pires, L.F.; Cássaro, F.A.M.; Correchel, V. Use of Nuclear Techniques in Soil Science: A
Literature Review of the Brazilian Contribution. Rev. Bras. Ci. Solo 2021, 45, e0210089.
[CrossRef]
Wang, J.; Watts, D.B.; Meng, Q.; Ma, F.; Zhang, Q.; Zhang, P.; Way, T.R. Influence of Soil
Wetting and Drying Cycles on Soil Detachment. AgriEngineering 2022, 4, 533–543.
[CrossRef]
Dapla, P.; Hriník, D.; Hrabovský, A.; Simkovic, I.; Zarnovican, H.; Sekucia, F.; Kollár, J.
The Impact of Land-Use on the Hierarchical Pore Size Distribution and Water Retention
Properties in Loamy Soils. Water 2020, 12, 339.
Buckinghan, E. Studies on the Movement of Soil Moisture; Bulletin, No. 38; United States
Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soil: Washington, DC, USA, 1907.
Celik, N.; Altin, D.; Cevik, U. A New Approach for Determination of Volumetric Water
Content in Soil Samples by Gamma-Ray Transmission. Water Air Soil Pollut. 2016, 227, 207.
[CrossRef]
Schaap, M.G.; Leij, F.J. Using Neural Networks to Predict Soil Water Retention and Soil
Hydraulic Conductivity. Soil Tillage Res. 1998, 47, 37–42. [CrossRef]
Demir, D.; Ün, A.; Özgül, M.; Sahin, Y. Determination of Photon Attenuation Coefficient,
Porosity and Field Capacity of Soil by Gamma-Ray Transmission for 60, 356 and 662 keV
Gamma Rays. Appl Radiat Isot. 2008, 66, 1834–1837. [CrossRef]
Filiz Baytas, A.; Akbal, S. Determination of Soil Parameters by Gamma-Ray
Transmission. Radiat Meas. 2002, 35, 17–21. [CrossRef]
Oliveira, J.C.M.; Appoloni, C.R.; Coimbra, M.M.; Reichardt, K.; Bacchi, O.O.S.; Ferraz,
E.; Silva, S.C.; Galvão Filho, W. Soil Structure Evaluated by Gamma-Ray Attenuation. Soil
Tillage Res. 1998, 48, 127–133. [CrossRef]
Naime, J.M.; Vaz, C.M.P.; Macedo, A. Automated Soil Particle Size Analyzer based on
Gamma-Ray Attenuation. Comput. Electron. Agric. 2001, 31, 295–304. [CrossRef]
Elsafi, M.; Koraim, Y.; Almurayshid, M.; Almasoud, F.I.; Sayyed, M.I.; Saleh, I.H.
Investigation of Photon Radiation Attenuation Capability of Different Clay Materials.
Materials 2021, 14, 6702. [CrossRef]
PASCO. Available online: https://www.pasco.com/products/lab-apparatus/atomic-andnuclear/sn-7900#desc-panel (accessed on 23 March 2023).
Pires, L.F.; Cássaro, F.A.M.; Tech, L.; Pereira, L.A.A.; de Oliveira, J.A.T. Gamma Ray
Attenuation for Determining Soil Density: Laboratory Experiments for Environmental
Physics and Engineering Courses. Rev. Bras. Ens. Fis. 2020, 42, e20190340. [CrossRef]
Amoozegar, A.; Heitman, J.L.; Kranz, C.N. Comparison of soil particle density
determined by a gas pycnometer using helium, nitrogen, and air. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 2023,
, 1–12. [CrossRef]
Ferraz, E.S.B.; Mansell, R.S. Determining Water Content and Bulk Density of Soil by
Gamma-Ray Attenuation Methods; Technical
Bulletin No. 807; University of Florida: Gainesville, FL, USA, 1979.
Al-Masri, M.S.; Hasan, M.; Al-Hamwi, A.; Amin, Y.; Doubal, A.W. Mass Attenuation
Coefficients of Soil and Sediment Samples using Gamma Energies from 46.5 to 1332 keV. J.
Environ. Radioact. 2013, 116, 28–33. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
Cesareo, R.; Assis, J.T.; Crestana, S. Attenuation Coefficients and Tomographic
Measurements for Soil in the Energy Range 10–300 keV. Appl. Radiat. Isot. 1994, 45, 613–
[CrossRef]
Bhandal, G.S.; Singh, K. Photon Attenuation Coefficient and Effective Atomic Number
Study of Cements. Appl. Radiat. Isot. 1993, 44, 1231–1243. [CrossRef]
Appoloni, C.R.; Rios, E.A. Mass Attenuation Coefficients of Brazilian Soils in the Range
-1450 keV. Appl. Radiat. Isot. 1994, 45, 287–291. [CrossRef]
Kaplan, I. Nuclear Physics; Addison-Wesley Publishing Company: Cambridge, UK, 1963.
Camargo, M.A.; Kodum, K.S.; Pires, L.F. How Does the Soil Chemical Composition
Affect the Mass Attenuation Coefficient? A Study Using Computer Simulation to Understand
the Radiation-Soil Interaction Processes. Braz. J. Phys. 2021, 51, 1775–1783. [CrossRef]
Knoll, G.F. Radiation Detection and Measurement; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken,
NJ, USA, 2010.
Abdel-Rahman, M.A.; Badawi, E.A.; Abdel-Hady, Y.L.; Kamel, N. Effect of Sample
Thickness on the Measured Mass Attenuation Coefficients of Some Compounds and
Elements for 59.54, 661.6 and 1332.5 keV γ-rays. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 2000,
, 432–436. [CrossRef]
Sharaf, J.M.; Saleh, H. Gamma-Ray Energy Buildup Factor Calculations and Shielding
Effects of Some Jordanian Building Structures. Radiat. Phys. Chem. 2015, 110, 87–95.
[CrossRef]
Brar, G.S.; Sidhu, G.S.; Sandhu, P.S.; Mudahar, G.S. Variation of Buildup Factors of Soils
with Weight Fractions of Iron and Silicon. Appl. Radiat. Isot. 1998, 49, 977–980. [CrossRef]
Wang, C.H.; Willis, D.L.; Loveland, W.D. Radiotracer Methodology in the Biological,
Environmental, and Physical Sciences; Prentice-Hall, Inc.: New Jersey, NJ, USA, 1975.
Ferguson, H.; Gardner, W.H. Water Content Measurement in Soil Columns by Gamma
Ray Absorption. Soil Sci. Soc. Proceed. 1962, 26, 11–14. [CrossRef]
Reginato, R.J.; van Bavel, C.H.M. Soil Water Measurement with Gamma Attenuation.
Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proceed. 1964, 28, 721–724. [CrossRef]
Moreno-Barbero, E.; Kim, Y.; Saenton, S.; Illangasekare, T.H. Intermediate-Scale
Investigation of Nonaqueous-Phase Liquid Architecture on Partitioning Tracer Test
Performance. Vadose Zone J. 2007, 6, 725–734. [CrossRef]
Bacchi, O.O.S.; Reichardt, K.; Oliveira, J.C.M.; Nielsen, D.R. Gamma-Ray Beam
Attenuation as an Auxiliary Technique for the Evaluation of Soil Water Retention Curve. Sci.
Agric. 1998, 55, 499–502. [CrossRef]
Medhat, M.E. Application of Gamma-Ray Transmission Method for Study the Properties
of Cultivated Soil. Ann. Nucl. Energy 2012, 40, 53–59. [CrossRef]