Identification of Contaminated Soils by Dielectric Constant and Electrical Conductivity
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 123, Issue 2
Abstract
To develop effective decontamination methods, characterization and identification of contaminated soils are needed. However, current methods of environmental soil characterization involve either soil sampling and analysis for targeted species in the laboratory or soil electrical conductivity measurements. Soil sampling and analyzing in the laboratory involves the risk of sample contamination during handling and testing. Furthermore, it is destructive. To overcome deficiencies of current identification and characterization methods, the use of dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of the soil-fluid system has been suggested. However, little is known about the dielectric behavior of a contaminated soil-fluid system. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of using dielectric constant and electrical conductivity to characterize and identify contaminated fine-grained soils. To investigate the usefulness of the preceding concept, the dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of kaolinite, bentonite, and a local soil are determined at various ion concentrations, organic liquids, and moisture content. Results show that both dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of soil-fluid system are mainly controlled by those of pore fluid.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Arulanandan, K.(1991). “Dielectric method for prediction of porosity of saturated soil.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 117(2), 319–330.
2.
Calvet, R.(1975). “Dielectric properties of montmorillonites saturated by bivalent cations.”Clays and Clay Minerals, 23, 257–265.
3.
Campanella, R. G., and Weemees, I.(1990). “Development and use of an electrical resistivity for groundwater contamination studies.”Can. Geotech. J., 27, 557–567.
4.
Endres, A. L., and Knight, R. J.(1993). “A model for incorporating surface phenomena into the dielectric response of a heterogeneous medium.”J. Colloid and Interface Sci., 157, 418–425.
5.
Fricke, H.(1952). “A mathematical treatment of electric conductivity and capacitance of disperse systems.”Experientia, 10, 376–377.
6.
Kaya, A., Lovell, C. W., Altschaffel, G. A. (1994). “The effective use of time domain reflectometry (TDR) in geotechnical engineering.”Proc., Symp. and Workshop on Time Domain Reflectometry in Envir., Infrastruct., and Min. Applications, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill., 398–409.
7.
Kaya, A., and Fang, H. Y.(1994). “Determination of liquefaction potential using dielectric concept.”Proc., 3rd Int. Conf. on Recent Adv. in Geotech. Engrg. and Soil Dyn., 3, 73–76.
8.
Kaya, A., and Fang, H. Y. (1996). “The effect of pore fluid dielectricity on selected physicochemical parameters of fine grained soils.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE (submitted for publication).
9.
Okanski, C. T.(1959). “Effect of interfacial conductivity on dielectric properties.”J. Chem. Phys., ASCE, 23, 1559–1566.
10.
Okoye, C. N., Cotton, R. R., and O'Meara, D. (1995). “Application of resistivity cone penetration testing for qualitative delineation of creosote contamination in saturated soils.”Geoenvironment 2000, ASCE, New York, N.Y., 151–160.
11.
Sachs, S. B., and Spiegler, K. S. “Radiofrequency measurements of porous conductive plugs, ion exchange resin-solution systems.”J. Phys. Chem., 68, 1214–1222.
12.
Selig, E. T., and Mansukhani, S.(1975). “Relationship of soil moisture to the dielectric property.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 101(8), 755–770.
13.
Sen, P. N.(1981). “Dielectric anomaly in homogenous materials with application to sedimentary rocks.”Appl. Phys. Letters, 39, 667–668.
14.
Smyth, C. P. (1955). Dielectric behavior and structure; dielectric loss, dipole moment and molecular structure. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, N.Y.
15.
Thevenayagam, S.(1993). “Electrical response of two-phase soils: theory and applications.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 119(8), 1250–1275.
16.
Thevenayagam, S. (1995a). “Environmental soil characterization using electric dispersion.”Proc., ASCE Spec. Conf. of the Geoenvironment 2000, ASCE, New York, N.Y., 137–150.
17.
Thevenayagam, S.(1995b). “Frequency-domain analysis of electrical dispersion of soils.”J. Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 121(8), 618–628.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 123 • Issue 2 • February 1997
Pages: 169 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Feb 1, 1997
Published in print: Feb 1997
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.