Abstract

The objective of this work is to monitor and image the temporal variations of soil moisture and water potential in vadose zone using a combination of a new seismic surface method and an existing acoustic probe system. A laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV)-based multi-channel analysis of surface wave (MASW) method is developed to measure the soil profile in terms of the shear wave velocity at depths up to a few meters. While the conventional MASWs use geophones as surface vibration sensors, the present MASW uses a moving LDV as a non-contact sensor to detect Rayleigh wave propagation generated by an electromagnetic shaker operating in a chirp mode. A long-term survey was conducted by measuring the S-wave velocity profile with the MASW along with the measurements of soil temperature, soil moisture, water potential, and the P-wave velocity with the existing acoustic probe system. The results from the two methods are compared and interpreted with the concept of effective stress, governed by soil moisture, soil suction stress for top unsaturated soils and the overburden pressure for deeper layer of soils. This study demonstrates that the S-wave velocity images obtained from the LDV-MASW method can effectively monitor and visualize the temporal variations of soil moisture and water potential in vadose zone.

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