THE INFLUENCE OF DESICCATION CRACKING ON VOLUMETRIC MOISTURE CONTENTS MEASURED BY THE NEUTRON PROBE
The neutron probe is ideally suited to the long-term monitoring of soil moisture in field studies involving unsaturated soils. Although there are a range of devices available for monitoring in-situ moisture contents, the neutron probe offers the possibility of superior performance in expansive clays as, unlike many capacitance methods, it senses a large effective sampling volume. To assess the use of the neutron probe in expansive clays theoretical neutron probe readings were determined for cracked and uncracked soils. The results reveal that cracking can have a significant impact on the neutron probe reading. Further, the discrepancy between cracked and uncracked soil readings was found to be a complex function of crack size,location and orientation. Air and water filled cracks were also found to affect the probe output differently.Ultimately the study showed that caution should be employed if the neutron probe is to be used in cracking clay soils.
Tony Wells Stephen Fityus
School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
国际会议
南京
英文
593-598
2007-04-21（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）