• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.31-37
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• 2021

To prevent accidents due to the cavities and loosened layers formed due to water leakage from the deteriorated buried pipes, evaluation of the changes in water contents around the buried pipes is required. As a method to evaluate the water contents of the soils, time domain reflectometry (TDR) system can be adopted. However, slender electrodes used in standard TDR probe may be damaged when buried in the ground. Thus, in this study, buried type TDR module was developed for the evaluation of the water contents with maintaining required shape of the electrodes in the ground. The TDR module is composed of three electrodes connected to the core conductor and outer conductor and a casing to prevent deformation and maintain alignment of the electrodes in the ground. For the verification of TDR waveforms measured using the TDR module, comparative analysis was conducted with the TDR waveforms measured using the standard TDR probe, and the relationship between the volumetric water content of the soils and the travel time of the guided electromagnetic wave was constructed. In addition, a model test was conducted to test the applicability of the buried type TDR module, and the experimental result shows that the TDR module clearly evaluates the changes in volumetric water contents due to the leakage from the modeled buried pipe. Therefore, the buried type TDR module may be effectively used for the health monitoring of the buried pipe and the evaluation of the water contents around the pipes buried in the urban pavements.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.85-91
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• 2024

To realize stable use of ground treated with cementitious materials, the curing process must be evaluated. In this study, a time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurement system was employed to evaluate the curing process of cementitious grout based on the electromagnetic property. A coated probe was manufactured to prevent electrical connection between the electrodes by the electrically conductive cementitious grout, and a calibration process was performed to estimate the actual relative permittivity using the coated probe. To assess the curing process of cementitious grout using the TDR measurement system, cementitious grout with added retarder was prepared with a water-to-cement ratio of 45%. A preliminary measurement was conducted immediately after pouring the cementitious grout into the mold to test the applicability of the coated probe, and TDR signals and relative permittivity were measured at 3~288 hours of curing time. The experimental results demonstrate that the relative permittivity of the cementitious grout immediately after pouring was greater than 100, decreased rapidly over time, and converged to approximately 13.8 at 144 hours, which is considered the fully cured time. This findings of this study demonstrate that the TDR measurement system with a coated probe is applicable to electrically conductive materials. In addition, the TDR measurement system can be used effectively to monitor the curing process of cementitious grout based on electromagnetic properties.