Moisture Content Lab Report

Notre Dame University (Louaize)
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

CEN 465
Environmental Engineering Laboratory

Lab # 1 Temperature and Water Content Measurement

Prepared by:
Michella Dib

Submitted to:
Dr. Yara Medawar

February 7, 2018
Part 1: Results
This experiment was done by measuring temperature and moisture content of random soil directly below the surface and deeper. No equations were used along the session (No calculation was done). The results are presented in tabulated and graphical forms.

Table 1: Variation of moisture content, and temperature of different soil layers
Depth(cm) Moisture content w(%) Temperature T(̊C)
5 16.2 20
10 17.1 19.1
15 19 19

Figure 1: Variation of moisture

Description of Data
The initial set of measurements is done varying the soil depth. As going deeper, the moisture content is getting higher (16.2% to 19%) while the temperature is getting cooler (20 C to 19 C).
Going farther from the initial reference point(1m, 2m, and 3m), the temperature decreases from 20 C to 16.6 C, but the moisture content is increasing from 16.2% to 20.9%. Figure 4: Running the experiment
For same depth measurements, moisture content varies +0.4% after 5 minutes then it continues in increasing to reach 21.4 % after 15 min. In parallel, the temperature of the soil decreases 0.4 C after the first 5 minutes then reaches the value of 16 C after 15 min.

2.b. Analysis of Data

Figure 5: Reading the

Different result was encountered with the temperature as it was decreasing with time .

An important issue limiting the applicability of the TDR is the effect of the main assumption (of the device run) that only the real part of the dielectric permittivity determines the value of the TDR-measured apparent dielectric permittivity. This statement is not applicable for conductive soils (clay soils) or where high concentrations of electrolyte are present in the soil solution (saline soils) because, under these conditions, the contribution of the imaginary part is important (Bittelli et al., 2008; Topp et al., 2000).

As a concise conclusion, no theoretical data is given or calculated to know if the measurement is precise, however, lots of factors could affect the measurement. One of the main effects of dielectric losses on the TDR measurement is overestimation of WC. From what could affect the results: Vaporization of water during the experiment (at noon