CLASSIFICATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF SOIL SAMPLES USING MICROWAVES

Presenter	:	MOHD FAIRUZ AFFANDI BIN AZIZ
E-mail	:	-
Date	:	21 / 6 / 2007
Time	:	3.00 PM
Venue	:	CEMACS, CONFERENCE ROOM, SCHOOL OF PHYSICS
Sypnosis	:	The focus of this research is to create a method for classification and characterisation of soils using microwaves. This research used two method. First, the transmission of microwave using Diod Gunn Transmitter with frequency of 10.525 GHz at 180° within the range from 27 cm to 30 cm to get the readings. Next, the pipette method was used to get the mechanical analysis of 22 samples which were taken from several location in north areas (Pulau Pinang, Kedah and Perlis). The result shows that, there are 6 types of soil that succesfully get from this research. They are sand, clay, loam, sandy clay loam, silty loam, and clay loam. All the result are divided into 2 parts according to their layers that is t and 2t. For the t layer, clay can be get with the percentage of clay from 50% hingga 70%, and the microwave readings in the range from 0.69 to 0.81 mA respectively. For loam, the percentage of clay varies from 12% to 20% with the microwave readings within the range from 0.60 to 0.68 mA respectively. Next, for silty loam, the percentage of clay varies from 20% to 25%, with the microwave readings within the range from 0.60 to 0.65 mA while for clay loam, the percentage of clay varies from 33% to 35% with the microwave readings from 0.65 to 0.83 mA respectively. Furthermore, for the next 2t layer, clay can be identify with the percentage of clay varies from 44% to 69% with the microwave readings within the range from 0.61 to 0.77 mA respectively. For sandy clay loam, the percentage of clay varies from 28% to 32% with the microwave readings within the range from 0.66 to 0.82 mA respectively. For loam, it shows that the microwave readings is 0.67 mA with the percentage of clay of 12%. For silty loam, the microwave reading is 0.61 mA with 16% of clay, meanwhile, for sand, the microwave reading is 0.62 mA with 17% of clay. The findings from this research shows that, the microwave method can be utilised to classify and identify soil samples.

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