Determination of density and volumetric water content of soil at multiple photon energies

Gamma ray transmission methods have been used accurately for the study of the properties of soil for agricultural purposes. In this study, density and volumetric water content of soil are determined by using gamma ray transmission method. To this end, the soil sample was collected from Erzurum, Turkey. The attenuation of strongly collimated monoenergetic gamma beam through the soil sample was measured using a 3 x 3 x 1 mm(3) cadmium telluride (CdTe) detector. The radioactive sources used in the experiment were Am-241, Ba-133 and Cs-137. The mass attenuation coefficients of dry soil sample were calculated from the transmission measurements. It was observed that gamma ray transmission method in measurement of the soil parameters with the portable CdTe detector has advantages such as practical, inexpensive, non-destructive and fast analysis. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.