Relationship between dielectric constant of soils with clay content and dry unit weight

Abstract

The monitoring of water movement and transfer into the ground is very important for assessing mechanisms such as settlements, ground contamination, road collapse or landslides, to name a few. Soil moisture can be indirectly measured with different techniques. In this paper, a three-phase mixed α model of the soil dielectric constant is considered and the parameters are calculated considering a large database (experimental and from literature). Then, the physical meaning and interpretation of those parameters are described from the viewpoints of the soil index properties (i.e. soil type, dry density ρdand clay content).