Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Science

First Advisor

Dr. Abdel-Mohsen Onsy

Second Advisor

Dr, Loretta Li

Third Advisor

Dr. Hassan Ghamlouche

Abstract

In this study, soil magnetic properties (magnetic susceptibility/ permeability) due to iron and iron bearing minerals have been evaluated by using MS2B on different percentage levels from pure iron, hematite and magnetite content at different conditions. The study shows that soil magnetic behavior has a strong dependency on grain size, temperature, water content, pH and compositional content.

Also, soil electrical behaviors have been studied due to iron and iron bearing minerals by using Impedance/ gain-phase Analyzer on different soil magnetic inclusion at different percentages. The study has established the strong effect of the magnetic inclusion on the measurements of relative dielectric constant, εr, dielectric constant components (ε' and ε'') and loss tangent, tan δ, in which the soil electrical behaviors were directly proportional to its magnetic content strength.

Based on the soil magnetic and electrical behavior results, ignoring soil magnetic effect due to iron and iron-bearing minerals causes significant errors when calculating wave propagation parameters as follows: (1) propagation constant, γ, is increased by 21.88%, (2) wave velocity, up, is decreased by 3.38%, (3) wavelength, λ, is decreased by 3.16%, and (4) intrinsic impedance, η, is increased by 3.42%. This in turn highlights the fact that the magnetic effect of the soil due to iron and iron-bearing minerals must be taken into consideration in the wave propagation calculations that applied in the TOR method of analysis.

Furthermore, the study verifies that the calculated apparent dielectric constant, εa, due to iron and iron-bearing minerals is less than the actual one by 11.42% leading to reduction in the predicted moisture content in soils using TOR techniques. However, since soil moisture content is a fundamental property in predicting the pollutant migration in soils, then predicted pollutant migration front will be underestimated.

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