Relationship of Electrical Dispersion to Soil Properties

In an effort to develop a nondestructive method for studying and predicting engineering properties of fine grained soils, a simplified electrical model is employed to represent the complicated soil system. The parameters of the model are both compositional and heterogeneous (structural). For a particular soil system, numerical values of the model parameters are determined by computer curve fitting the theoretical electrical dispersion equations of the model to the soil experimentally determined radio frequency dispersion curves. The fundamental nature of radio frequency electrical dispersion in fine grained soils and the numerical parameters of the model offer a technique for studying the engineering behavior of soils in a fundamental quantitative manner. The following subjects are summarized: the model's ability to monitor structural changes; the relationship between one model parameter and the swell potential of soils; and the relationship between another model parameter and the hydraulic permeability of fine grained soils.