Investigation of electro-mechanical properties of soil materials

Abstract

The variations of soil physical properties throughout the world play a significant role in agricultural production and understanding where these variations occur may lead to enhancement of crop production and soil protection. Methods used to determine these properties today present a significant opportunity for improvement and need for data of higher quality. Contents from this work offer a new system for the characterization of these properties without the limitation of strictly soil investigation. The system developed used a uniaxial compression arrangement to measure either the electrical capacitance or electrical resistance of a material, while simultaneous measures of pressure and bulk density are recorded. The sensor was tested in a laboratory setting using both well-defined and higher complexity materials. Effects of moisture content, bulk density, particle size, material type, and amount of material used were all investigated. Statistical analysis by means of a two-sample t-test showed that separation was possible at an  of 0.05. Future work in this area should focus on the further classification of electrical capacitance curves, analysis on more varieties of soil types, adjustments in pH values, exploration of effects that may be caused by additives in the soil, and a more advanced design to allow for testing in the outdoor agricultural environment.