The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage Experiments
Although many unsaturated soil experiments have successfully delivered positive outcomes, most studies just concisely illustrated sensor techniques, because their main objectives focused on bridging research gaps. Inexperienced research fellows might rarely follow up those techniques, so they could...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/10/3724 |
| _version_ | 1827666626786361344 |
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| author | Guanxi Yan Thierry Bore Habibullah Bhuyan Stefan Schlaeger Alexander Scheuermann |
| author_facet | Guanxi Yan Thierry Bore Habibullah Bhuyan Stefan Schlaeger Alexander Scheuermann |
| author_sort | Guanxi Yan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although many unsaturated soil experiments have successfully delivered positive outcomes, most studies just concisely illustrated sensor techniques, because their main objectives focused on bridging research gaps. Inexperienced research fellows might rarely follow up those techniques, so they could encounter very trivial and skill-demanding difficulties, undermining the quality of experimental outcomes. With a motivation to avoid those, this work introduces technical challenges in applying three sensor techniques: high precision tensiometer, spatial time-domain reflectometry (spatial TDR) and digital bench scales, which were utilized to measure three fundamental variables: soil suction, moisture content and accumulative outflow. The technical challenges are comprehensively elaborated from five aspects: the functional mechanism, assembling/manufacturing approaches, installation procedure, simultaneous data-logging configurations and post data/signal processing. The conclusions drawn in this work provide sufficient technical details of three sensors in terms of the aforementioned five aspects. This work aims to facilitate any new research fellows who carry out laboratory-scale soil column tests using the three sensors mentioned above. It is also expected that this work will salvage any experimenters having troubleshooting issues with those sensors and help researchers bypass those issues to focus more on their primary research interests. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:54:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ca36a22c398642128fce795d2d45dcdb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:54:23Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-ca36a22c398642128fce795d2d45dcdb2023-11-23T13:00:09ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202022-05-012210372410.3390/s22103724The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage ExperimentsGuanxi Yan0Thierry Bore1Habibullah Bhuyan2Stefan Schlaeger3Alexander Scheuermann4School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, AustraliaSchool of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, AustraliaSchool of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, AustraliaScience-Engineering-Measurement, Sceme.de GmbH, HRB 7181 Amtsgericht Lemgo, 32805 Horn-Bad Meinberg, GermanySchool of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, AustraliaAlthough many unsaturated soil experiments have successfully delivered positive outcomes, most studies just concisely illustrated sensor techniques, because their main objectives focused on bridging research gaps. Inexperienced research fellows might rarely follow up those techniques, so they could encounter very trivial and skill-demanding difficulties, undermining the quality of experimental outcomes. With a motivation to avoid those, this work introduces technical challenges in applying three sensor techniques: high precision tensiometer, spatial time-domain reflectometry (spatial TDR) and digital bench scales, which were utilized to measure three fundamental variables: soil suction, moisture content and accumulative outflow. The technical challenges are comprehensively elaborated from five aspects: the functional mechanism, assembling/manufacturing approaches, installation procedure, simultaneous data-logging configurations and post data/signal processing. The conclusions drawn in this work provide sufficient technical details of three sensors in terms of the aforementioned five aspects. This work aims to facilitate any new research fellows who carry out laboratory-scale soil column tests using the three sensors mentioned above. It is also expected that this work will salvage any experimenters having troubleshooting issues with those sensors and help researchers bypass those issues to focus more on their primary research interests.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/10/3724unsaturated soil suctionsoil moisture contentsensor techniquetensiometerspatial TDRdata-logging system |
| spellingShingle | Guanxi Yan Thierry Bore Habibullah Bhuyan Stefan Schlaeger Alexander Scheuermann The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage Experiments Sensors unsaturated soil suction soil moisture content sensor technique tensiometer spatial TDR data-logging system |
| title | The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage Experiments |
| title_full | The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage Experiments |
| title_fullStr | The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage Experiments |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage Experiments |
| title_short | The Technical Challenges for Applying Unsaturated Soil Sensors to Conduct Laboratory-Scale Seepage Experiments |
| title_sort | technical challenges for applying unsaturated soil sensors to conduct laboratory scale seepage experiments |
| topic | unsaturated soil suction soil moisture content sensor technique tensiometer spatial TDR data-logging system |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/10/3724 |
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