Time domain reflectometry in the determination of soil water content

This study had as objective the determination of the correlation between the apparent dielectric constant and water content for a clay-textured soil and a sandy-textured soil by fitting a cubic polynomial type model. To measure the soil water content a TDR system was proposed, which consists of: oscilloscope; electromagnetic pulse generator; coaxial cable of 50 omega; TV antenna cable; impedance matching; probes (paralleled metallic guides) with 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30 and 0.35 m lengths and with two diameters (d1 = 3.2 and d2 = 6.5 mm). For the sandy soil, the best fit was obtained with a 0.30 m-long probe with 3.2 mm-diameter guides, an adjusted determination coefficient, R², of 0.954. For the clay soil, the best fit was obtained with a 0.30 m-long probe with a 3.2 mm-diameter guides, and an adjusted determination coefficient, R², of 0.923. The TDR system, proposed for determination of the soil water content within the range between the field capacity and the wilting point, provided the best determination coefficients for the 0.30 m probe in both soils and the studied probe lengths. The proposed TDR system estimated the clay-soil water content with mean relative error of 6.6%, for the 0.30 m probe.

TDR; probe; irrigation and automation