Abstract
Soil moisture is an important type of data in many fields; ranging from agriculture to environmental monitoring. Three soil samples were collected at definite proportions to represent the three basic soil types (sandy, loamy and clay soils). The moisture contents of these soil samples were analyzed using the thermogravimetric method. This paper employed the use of PC-based soil moisture content measuring system in order to obtain accurate results. It works with the principle that there is an increase or decrease in soil conductivity as soil moisture increases or decreases respectively. The constructed prototype was used to test the three soil samples as well and the results were compared with that of the thermogravimetric method. The results gotten from this prototype shows the relationship between conductivity and moisture content of the soil. The system was well calibrated in order to get standard readings and conquer the problem of transistor amplification at the signal pick up stage. This therefore makes it possible to get fast an accurate results without wasting much time and energy.
Highlights
As the soil surface evaporates and a crop removes water, the soil has less water than at field capacity, and is described as having a soil moisture deficit (SMD)
It is known as the thermogravimetric method
Where θg is the gravimetric soil moisture content which is usually represented in percent (Zegelin, 1996), Mwater is the mass of water contained in the voids of the moist soil, and Msoil is the mass of dry soil
Summary
As the soil surface evaporates and a crop removes water, the soil has less water than at field capacity, and is described as having a soil moisture deficit (SMD). The indirect methods of measuring soil moisture are categorized according to their means of detecting the variables These are EM wave, electrical radiological, acoustic and physical based methods. EM wave methods that are more elaborate include capturing soil-reflected EM waves transmitted from satellite or an airplane Other indirect methods such as the neutron scattering method and the gamma ray attenuation method (Zegelin, 1996) involve determining the soil moisture content by making use of high energy from radioactive emissions. Such methods are very expensive, cumbersome and are sources of potential health hazards (Schmugge et al, 1980). The aim of this research is to design and produce a simple, accurate system to measure the level of soil moisture content
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