• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.239-243
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• 2012

This paper proposes a electric resistor sensor to measure soil moisture. The soil moisture sensor uses resistance to measure the water content of soil. The main idea is the resistance between the sensor probes can vary according to the water content of soil. Then the resistance difference can be converted to the electrical signal. This sensor is very simple and cheap. In this paper several sensors are connected in serial and composed a sensor network. This sensor network is adopted in IMS(Internet Management System) and demonstrated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.9
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• pp.1007-1023
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• 2010

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an innovative TDR distributed moisture sensor. This sensor features advantages of being responsive to the spatial variations of the soil moisture content. The geometry design of the sensor makes it rugged for field installation. Good linear calibration is obtained between the sensor measured dielectric constant and soil physical properties. Simulations by the finite element method (FEM) are conducted to assist the design of this sensor and to determine the effective sampling range. Compared with conventional types of moisture sensor, which only makes point measurement, this sensor possesses distributed moisture sensing capability. This new sensor is not only easy to install, but also measures moisture distribution with much lower cost. This new sensor holds promise to significantly improve the current field instruments. It will be a useful tool to help study the influence of a variety of moisture-related phenomena on infrastructure performance.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 1998

Due to relatively high permittivity of water in soils, we placed the soil condenser into soils to measure the soil moisture content. The soil condenser was made with two insulated iron sticks. The capacitance of the soil condenser was determined by the pulse period from RC type oscillation circuit and the highest voltage output accepting 10MHz pulse. After zero point adjustment, the measured relative capacitance percentage (RCS) to the standard condenser obtained by the oscillation circuit almost linearly correlated with the end depth of the sensor submerged in water. The RC type oscillation was disturbed by many sensor installed in a close distance in one place, presumably resulting in that the sensor sticks played as a interfering antennas generating or accepting electron waves from them. The temperature dependance of the output from the sensors could be corrected through experimentally determined revision function. Although lineal correlation was found between soil moisture and RCS, users should derive their own correlation function for every sensor to measure soil moisture, because the outputs were influenced by the installation depth and layout in the soil. The voltage type sensor responded inversely with soil moisture content and so was not suitable to the accurate measurement of soil moisture, but allows high economic benefit in various application such as simplified measurement of soil moisture and irrigation line control because of its low component count. The voltage type moisture sensor could be reinforced by relay controlling circuit to open and to close the solenoid valves respectively at optimal limits of the least and the most soil moisture according to user's adjustment.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.415-419
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• 2021

We developed a highly accurate, yet inexpensive, refractive index (RI)-based soil moisture sensor. To detect the RI, a light guide was set with a light-emitting diode and photodiode. When the air fills the space between the soil particles, most of the incident light is reflected at the interface between the waveguide and the air because of the large RI difference. As the moisture of the soil increases, the macroscopic soil RI increases. This allows incident light to pass through the interface. The intensity of the light reaching the photodiode was simulated according to the change in the soil RI. Using the simulation results, we designed and manufactured a curved glass waveguide. We evaluated the performance of the RI-based soil sensor by comparing it with a commercially available, high-cost and high-performance time-domain reflectometer (TDR). Our sensor was 96% accurate, surpassing the costly TDR sensor.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.331-336
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• 2011

Capacitance soil moisture sensor is extensively used by soil research and irrigation management with its convenience and accuracy. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the acceptability of capacitance soil moisture sensor, named EnviroSCAN made by Sentek Ltd., in Jeju Island where volcanic ash soils are widely distributed, and to calibrate it to various soils with different amount of soil organic matter. For sensor calibration equation of volcanic ash soils, a logarithm function is better than a typical power function of non-volcanic ash soils. So there are possibilities of under evaluated in soil water contents in very wet and very dry conditions by using typical power function with volcanic ash soil areas. We suggested practical coefficients of typical calibration equation for using capacitance sensor in volcanic ash soils, also suggested equations for estimation of them with soil organic matter contents. The measurement of soil water content with a capacitance sensor can be affected by some soil characteristics such as porosity, soil organic matter content, EC, etc. So those factors should be controlled for improving the accuracy of measurement.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.155-174
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• 2023

High performance concrete (HPC) has been extensively used in thin overlay for repair purpose due to its excellent strength and durability. This paper presents an experiment, where the sensor-instrumented HPC overlays have been followed by dynamic strain and moisture content monitoring for 1 year, under normal traffic. The vibrating wire and soil moisture sensors were embedded in overlay before construction. Four given HPC mixes (2 original mixes and their shrinkage-modified mixes) were used for overlays to contrast the strain and moisture results. A calibration method to accurately measure the moisture content for a given concrete mixture using soil moisture sensor was established. The monitoring results indicated that the modified mixes performed much better than the original mixes in shrinkage cracking control. Weather condition and concrete maturity at early age greatly affected the strain in concrete. The strain in HPC overlay was primarily in longitudinal direction, leading to transverse cracks. Additionally, the most moisture loss in concrete occurred at early age. Its rate was very dependent on weather. After one year, cracking survey was carried out by vision to verify the strain direction and no cracks observed in shrinkage modified mixes.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.311-319
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• 2008

Evaluation of an amplitude domain reflectometry (ADR) type soil moisture sensor as ThetaProbe ML2x using the response of frequency impedance was performed in a variety of soil porous media such as Jumunjin standard sand, weathered granite soil at Sangju area, and weathered gneiss soil at Jangsu area. The tested soils were classified with a dried condition and a wetted condition for comparing with soil volumetric water content under different installed depths of the measurement sensor. In the results the part of measurement rod including one signal rod and three shield rod 6cm in length was found to decrease the variation of measurement output voltage with insert 5cm over into the soil porous media. The measurement output voltage was verified to more stable output voltage under weathered granite soils and weathered gneiss soils contained the fine grain materials such as clay and silt minerals than the gradual grain material like as the standard sands. Therefore, measurement values by soil moisture sensor can be offered the more stable values when an contact volume between soil porous media and measurement sensor increase.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.11-20
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• 2020

We estimated the spatio-temporally distributed soil moisture using Sentinel-1A/B SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) sensor images and soil moisture data assimilation technique in South Korea. Soil moisture data assimilation technique can extract the hydraulic parameters of soils using observed soil moisture and GA (Genetic Algorithm). The SWAP (Soil Water Atmosphere Plant) model associated with a soil moisture assimilation technique simulates the soil moisture using the soil hydraulic parameters and meteorological data as input data. The soil moisture based on Sentinel-1A/B was validated and evaluated using the pearson correlation and RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) analysis between estimated soil moisture and TDR soil moisture. The soil moisture data assimilation technique derived the soil hydraulic parameters using Sentinel-1A/B based soil moisture images, ASOS (Automated Synoptic Observing System) weather data and TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission)/GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) rainfall data. The derived soil hydrological parameters as the input data to SWAP were used to simulate the daily soil moisture values at the spatial domain from 2001 to 2018 using the TRMM/GPM satellite rainfall data. Overall, the simulated soil moisture estimates matched well with the TDR measurements and Sentinel-1A/B based soil moisture under various land surface conditions (bare soil, crop, forest, and urban).

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2002

The effect of diurnal cycle, intermittent visit of observation satellite, sensor installation, partial coverage of remote sensing, heterogeneity of soil properties and precipitation to the soil moisture estimation error were analyzed to present the global sampling strategy of soil moisture. Three models, the theoretical soil moisture model, WGR model proposed Waymire of at. (1984) to generate rainfall, and Turning Band Method to generate two dimensional soil porosity, active soil depth and loss coefficient field were used to construct sufficient two-dimensional soil moisture data based on different scenarios. The sampling error is dominated by sampling interval and design scheme. The effect of heterogeneity of soil properties and rainfall to sampling error is smaller than that of temporal gap and spatial gap. Selecting a small sampling interval can dramatically reduce the sampling error generated by other factors such as heterogeneity of rainfall, soil properties, topography, and climatic conditions. If the annual mean of coverage portion is about 90%, the effect of partial coverage to sampling error can be disregarded. The water retention capacity of fields is very important in the sampling error. The smaller the water retention capacity of the field (small soil porosity and thin active soil depth), the greater the sampling error. These results indicate that the sampling error is very sensitive to water retention capacity. Block random installation gets more accurate data than random installation of soil moisture gages. The Walnut Gulch soil moisture data show that the diurnal variation of soil moisture causes sampling error between 1 and 4 % in daily estimation.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.608-615
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• 2021

Soil moisture control system including soil sensing and automatic water supply chain was constructed on open farmland and pot conditions. Soil moisture was controlled by the system showing over the soil moisture contents except 40% treatment. EC was gradually decreased by increasing cultivation days. On applying this system to control soil moisture, the growth and development characters of the bellflower were improved compared with control, cultivation without the automatic irrigation. Of the growth and development characters, plant height with water treatments was higher than that of control in 1st-year plants. Moreover, numbers of branch were increased by the increased soil moisture on farmland and pot condition. Capsule numbers for seed were best at 20%, 30% soil moisture treatment in 1st-year plants, and 20% to 50% treatment in 2nd-year plants. The construction of automatic soil moisture control system provide fundamental data for plant growth and development on open farmland soil condition.