Water Level Detection in Silty Materials Using Ground Penetrating Radar.

Detection of water level in silty soils can be complicated because of capillary action. In this study, the water level in a silty soil sample was detected using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technique in the laboratory. The soil sample has dimensions of 62 cm × 48 cm × 46 cm and was kept in a clear Plexiglas container which facilitated water level measurements. Two ground-coupled antennas with frequencies of 900 MHz and 1,500 MHz were used in this study. The soil sample was dry at the beginning of the experiment. The water level in the soil sample was raised to a pre-determined level and radar readings were taken at different times over 24 hours. The moisture content in the soil sample above the water level increased with time due to capillary action. At the end of the experiment, the variation of moisture content with depth of the sample was experimentally determined. The GPR observations were compared with measured water depth in the soil sample. The paper presents the comparison of water level as determined by GPR with the variation of experimentally determined moisture content in the silty soil sample. This study includes an investigation on the effects of capillary action on GPR measurements. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]