A device for measuring soil moisture in the field

RELEVANCE. When building roads, preparing foundations for high–rise buildings, information is needed about such an important parameter as the density of the soil skeleton – the ratio of the mass of soil particles to the volume of the sample of an undisturbed structure. The precise determination of this parameter is an important task, since this parameter has a nonlinear dependence on humidity. Consequently, in a narrow range of humidity changes, the density of the soil skeleton becomes maximum, which makes such a soil the most favorable for construction work. PURPOSE. To develop an autonomous device for measuring soil moisture in the field. METHODS. The dielkometric method was used to develop a device for measuring soil moisture. This is an indirect method for measuring the humidity of substances based on the dependence of the dielectric constant of these substances on their humidity. RESULTS. An autonomous device for determining soil moisture using the dielkometric method has been developed, designed for use in the field, which significantly speeds up the process of analyzing and processing measurement results, and, consequently, the process of processing information about the state of the soil. During the project, experiments were carried out to measure capacity depending on humidity and temperature at various frequencies from 100 Hz to 100 kHz in various types of soils. CONCLUSION. A device for determining soil moisture was developed and a method for determining the moisture and density of the soil skeleton by the dielkometric method was proposed, preliminary experiments were conducted. However, during the experiments, a temperature dependence was found for low frequencies, so additional temperature calibration is necessary.

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