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# 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
Technical Note
Abstract. The effect of electrical conductivity (EC) of a dielectric material on its TDR-mea-
sured dielectric constant ea (called the apparent dielectric constant) was investigated both theo-
retically and experimentally. The effect of EC on the apparent dielectric constant eawas more
pronounced at low frequency of the electromagnetic pulse applied to measure ea. The assump-
tion of neglecting electrical losses in measuring the dielectric constant by TDR to represent er
was not valid for dielectric materials containing free charges, such as electrolyte solutions, ben-
tonite clay, and saline soils. A theory is proposed to separate the real part of the dielectric con-
stant er from the TDR-measured ea in lossy dielectrics. An EC – er relationship can be
developed that would provide ea ( ¼ er) at EC ¼ 0 to be used to determine soil-water contents
in conductive soils.
Na-bentonite mixed with distilled water resulted in considerable magnitude of bulk EC due
to the adsorbed cations on the surface of the particles. This EC caused energy loss of the TDR
pulse that depended on the length of the probe rod. For a 4.5 cm long probe, the reflected
TDR waveform was completely attenuated for EC between 3.05 dS m1 and 3.72 dS m1.
The waveforms generated in this range of EC were not suitable for analysis by TDR-support
software for dielectric constant. With the adsorbed cations, Na-bentonite behaved as a lossy
or dispersive material.
Key words. dielectric constant, dielectrics, electrical conductivity, time-domain reflectometry.
1. Introduction
Time-domain reflectometry (TDR) has become a recognized electromagnetic method
for nondestructive measurement of dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of
liquids and moist porous materials simultaneously with the same probe. The TDR-
2. Theoretical Background
2.1. DIELECTRICS AND DIELECTRIC CONSTANT
Dielectrics (also known as insulators) are electrically neutral materials with their
positive and negative charges bound in position by atomic and molecular forces.
They become charged when polarized by an induced electric field. The induced
charges cannot migrate through the dielectrics as in conductors and semi-conduc-
tors. In dielectrics, there are gaps between the filled and empty energy levels for the
distribution of electrons in atoms. These gaps offer resistance to the movement of
the electrons by the external electric field. However, a strong electric field (the
strength depending on particular dielectric material) enables the electrons to move
and causes dielectric breakdown. All dielectrics, when polarized, store a certain
amount of electrical energy by shifting the relative positions of the internal bound
positive and negative charges against the molecular and atomic forces. This energy
produces dielectric fluxes and, hence, an electric field in the dielectrics. A measure
of this induced electric field is the dielectric permittivity, e0 (F m1), which is a
function of the frequency of the applied electric field. The dielectric permittivity
when expressed relative to the dielectric permittivity of free space, e0 (8.85
1012 F m1) is popularly known as the dielectric constant, although it is not actu-
ally a constant.
Dielectric permittivity e0 is a complex quantity with a real part e0 r (F m1) and an
imaginary part e0 i (F m1). The real part is a measure of the electrical energy stored in
dielectrics at a given frequency and the imaginary part represents the rate of dissipa-
tion of energy or the dielectric loss. At low frequencies of the applied electric field,
the induced charges in the particles of dielectrics reorientate, but, at high frequencies,
the particles deform (Clemmow, 1973). The inertia of the charged particles exerts a
force that resists the displacement of the particles. This force tends to prevent the
particles from keeping them in phase with the applied electric field and leads to a fric-
tional damping mechanism that causes loss of power in dielectrics (Cheng, 1989).
Presence of any free charges in dielectrics also causes loss of power due to conduc-
tion. Both the frictional loss and conductive loss are included in the imaginary part
of the dielectric permittivity. The complex dielectric permittivity, e0 , is expressed as
(Cheng, 1989):
0 s0
e ¼ e0r 0
j ep þ ð1Þ
e0 o
where o is the angular frequency of the applied electric field (rad s1), e0 p is the ima-
ginary part of the dielectric permittivity due to polarization (F m1), s0 is the electri-
p
cal conductivity due to free charges in the dielectrics (S m1), and j ¼ (1), an
imaginary number.
246 M. A. MOJID ET AL.
The ratio m/m0 is the relative magnetic permeability of the material mr, which is
approximately unity for most materials (Cheng, 1989), and ea0 /e0 is the apparent
dielectric constant of the material ea. For most soils, the imaginary part of dielectric
permittivity is small relative to the real part at high frequencies used in TDR (Davis
and Annan, 1977) except for electrically conductive media such as dense compacted
clays, conductive minerals, or highly saline soils (White et al., 1994; Suwansawat,
1997). Thus, soils with no free charges can be considered lossless and the imaginary
component of the dielectric constant in such soils is assumed negligible so that ea
represents er. Nevertheless, in the assumption of a lossless material for TDR mea-
surement, some electrical losses are always ignored and, consequently, ea is referred
to as the ‘apparent’ dielectric constant of the material. Thus,
2
v0 t
ea ð er Þ ¼ ð6Þ
2L
The product v0t is the distance that an electromagnetic wave travels in a complete
return trip through a probe in time t with a velocity v0 so that v0t/2 is the one-way dis-
tance of travel through the probe called the apparent travel path of the TDR wave
l (m). The TDR cable tester internally calculates the distance of travel of a launched
pulse as the relative velocity of this pulse in the material to that in free space. So, a
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY PROBLEMS 247
ratio vp of the velocity of the wave in the material to the velocity of the wave in free
space is used to represent v0t/2 as:
v0 t l
¼ ð7Þ
2 vp
Equations (6) & (7) directly lead to:
l 2
ea ¼ ð8Þ
Lvp
When the dielectric materials contain free charges and cause conduction loss (also
called ohmic loss), the imaginary part of the dielectric permittivity e0 i must be taken
into account. The velocity v of the electromagnetic wave through a TDR probe in
such materials is expressed by (Cheng, 1989):
1
v ¼ vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð9Þ
u 2sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
0 2
3
u 0
umer 4 ei
t
2 1 þ 0 þ 15
er
2sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 3
0 2
e0r 4
where 2 1 þ 0i þ 15
e
er
is the apparent dielectric permittivity e0 a of the material.
Due to the similar effects of the conductive and polarization losses (Topp et al.,
2000), they are included in the imaginary part e0 i (Hasted, 1973) as:
s0
e0i ¼ e0p þ ð11Þ
o
s2
er ¼ ea ð13Þ
4ea o2 e00
248 M. A. MOJID ET AL.
Note that TDR-measured ea (Eq. 6) includes both polarization and conduction los-
ses (tan d) and is assumed to represent er when tan d is negligible. So, combining
Equation (6) with Equations (10) & (12) does not create inconsistencies for the mean-
ing of their parameters. Although the Tektronix application note (Tektronix, 1983) is
not explicit about the frequency of the Tektronix 1502C TDR cable tester, a specific
frequency is needed to use Equation (13). This frequency can be estimated by fitting
Equation (13) to measured apparent dielectric constant ea and electrical conductivity
s of a salt solution in pure water. The dielectric constant of pure water (¼ 80 at 20 C)
is assumed to represent the real part er only. Such an approach to estimate o was
used by Wyseure et al. (1997).
Figure 1. A TDR waveform and its first derivative in a Na-bentonite suspension. ‘A’ and ’B’ on the first
derivative represent the points of inflection of the waveform. ‘C’ and ‘D’ are the points of initial and final
reflection of TDR pulse from the beginning and end of the probe. l is the apparent travel path of the TDR
pulse used for calculating dielectric constant ea .
global minimum of the waveform and a line tangent drawn through the inflection
point of the waveform that is located at the point of its highest first derivative (point
B in Figure 1). The distance between C and D is the apparent length of travel of the
TDR pulse through the probe l. The average apparent dielectric constant of the sur-
rounding material ea sampled by the cable tester’s measurement system is calculated
using Equation (8), which gives a valid approximation of er for low lossy materials.
Equation (13) shows that the real part of the dielectric constant er decreases directly
with the square of the conductivity of the material s and inversely with the square of
the frequency of the TDR wave o. The loss term (imaginary part) is additive to the
real part of the dielectric constant and, consequently, ea becomes significantly larger
than er in materials with free charges. Under such conditions, the fact that the real
part of dielectric constant er depends strongly on soil-water content and only weakly
on other soil properties (Davis and Annan, 1977; Topp et al., 2000) (on which TDR
measurement of soil-water content is based) does not hold. For TDR-measured
water content to be accurate, ea must be predicted at negligible electrical losses (tan d
! 0). Equation (13) allows one to calculate er in conductive materials. Then, from er
and s one can establish the relationship between er and s. The ser relationship
would provide er ( ¼ ea) at s ¼ 0 that is to be used in determining soil-water content
accurately in conductive soils.
approximately three times more concentrated than that surrounding a 2-rod probe
(Knight et al., 1994). Thus, the sample cell and the placement of the probe in it
should not cause any significant error in our experiments. This was confirmed by
the comparable soil-water contents from TDR-measurement in this sample cell
and gravimetric measurement in calibration experiments.
The dielectric constant and EC of the bentonite samples were measured by TDR
and the waveform for each sample was recorded. The preparation and measurement
of the bentonite samples were performed at a constant room temperature of
25 1 C. After the TDR measurement, the water content of the samples was mea-
sured gravimetrically by drying them in an oven and was expressed on the basis of
weight w and also on the basis of volume y. By comparing y based on the measured
w and the particle density qp of the bentonite with the measured y, we confirmed that
the sample was saturated for y 5 0.6 m3 m3(w 5 50%).
The imaginary part of the dielectric permittivity due to polarization of the dielectric
material and free charges in it represents the total energy loss (represented by tan d)
of an electromagnetic wave. Figure 2 shows a plot of the real and imaginary part
of the dielectric constant of distilled water (er and ei) that was calculated by the
Cole–Cole equations (Hasted, 1973, Equations (1.64) & (1.65)) as a function of
frequency. The Cole–Cole equations estimate the imaginary part ei (e0 r/e0) due to
polarization of the water molecules only since the EC of distilled water is negligible.
Figure 2. The real and imaginary part of dielectric constant (er and ei ) of distilled water at 20 C as a func-
tion of frequency as calculated by the Cole–Cole equations. Also shown are the values of ei of electrolyte
solution for four different values of electrical conductivity s (dS m1).
252 M. A. MOJID ET AL.
The total imaginary part ei was predicted by Equation (13) and is also displayed in
Figure 2 for four different values of EC of electrolyte solution in distilled water. Both
the real part er and the total imaginary part ei decrease with the increasing frequency
of the wave. The polarization losses become considerable only at frequencies higher
than 0.5 GHz. At lower frequencies, these losses are negligible. Due to the EC of the
solutions, ei increases sharply with decreasing frequency causing a proportional
decrease in er according to Equations (12) & (13). The conductive losses, however,
become negligible in the higher frequency range. For an EC of the electrolyte solu-
tion s ¼ 20 dS m1 the conductive losses are predominant at frequencies below
15 GHz and are negligible at frequencies exceeding 20 GHz. Davis and Annan
(1977) reported that the real part of the dielectric constant er in soils did not appear
to be frequency dependent in the frequency range from 1 MHz to 1 GHz. However,
Figure 2 clearly demonstrates that the measurement of dielectric constant is very sen-
sitive to EC at low frequency of the applied electromagnetic wave. Fortunately, the
TDR cable tester operates on a frequency bandwidth assumed to be between
16.6 kHz and 3.18 GHz (Tektronix, 1983) within which the energy loss due to a cer-
tain magnitude of EC is reasonably small, although not always negligible.
Figure 3. Two TDR waveforms in Na-bentonite samples with volumetric water content y ¼ 0:72 m3 m3
and 0:96 m3 m3 showing different degrees of attenuation for the corresponding electrical conductivity
s ¼ 3:66 dS m1 and 1.29 dS m1.
such condition as is similar to the case for the salt affected soils (Mojid et al., 1998).
However, the use of an insulated probe can prevent the conduction loss of energy to
a considerable extent and enable measurement of dielectric constant by providing a
reasonably well-defined waveform in conductive materials (Mojid et al., 1998).
It may be noted that the objective of this note is not to solve the problem of wave-
form attenuation but to deal with the conductive and dielectric losses (tan d) that
always exist in TDR-measured ea. The attenuation of the reflected TDR waveforms
depends mainly on the EC of the sampled material and to some extent on the length
of the probe rod. Since cumulative energy loss increases with the increasing length of
the probe rod, attenuation of reflected waveforms from a long probe is higher than
that from a small probe for a given EC of the material. Therefore, by adjusting the
probe length it is possible to obtain a reasonable magnitude of reflected waveform
from a material with a certain high EC to be analyzed for ea. However, the measured
ea obviously includes the effect of conductive and dielectric losses according to Equa-
tion (13) (Wyseure et al., 1997; Robinson et al., 1999; Topp et al., 2000). The main
focus of this paper is to estimate er at EC ¼ 0 from the TDR-measured ea in conduc-
tive media irrespective of the TDR probe configuration, especially the length of the
probe rod to be used in measuring ea. Topp et al. (2000) also investigated such a pro-
blem and reported a way for removing conductivity and dielectric loss contributions
from ea to give an improved estimate of er using the TDR waveform.
ei was assumed negligible. This proposition was based on the fact that in the fre-
quency bandwidth of TDR (16.6 kHz–3.18 GHz), ei was very small compared to er
(Figure 2). This assumption might be valid for dielectric materials without any free
charges where the velocity of a TDR wave was independent of frequency (Equation
(4)). But, when there are free charges in the dielectric materials such as electrolyte
solutions and saline soils, the velocity of the wave is dependent on frequency accord-
ing to Equations (9) & (11) and the TDR-measured ea obviously does not represent er
only. Figure 4 illustrates that ea continuously increased as the EC of the electrolyte
solution s increased. The real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant (er and
ei) as predicted by Equation (13) are also shown in Figure 4. In this prediction, a fre-
quency of 0.127 GHz (o ¼ 0.8 109 rad s1) was used according to Wyseure et al.
(1997). The real part er decreased and the imaginary part ei increased with increasing
s. Since the same TDR equipment with a fixed frequency bandwidth performed all
the measurements, we thought that ei might result from the EC of the electrolyte
solution only; the contribution of polarization to ei was negligible in this frequency
range (Figure 2). These results revealed that Equation (8) no longer provided er from
TDR measurement in dielectric materials containing free charges, and that TDR
might overestimate er and hence soil-water content in such materials as reported
by Wyseure et al. (1997) and Robinson et al. (1999). Fortunately, the overestimation
of soil-water content was small up to a certain low value of EC depending on the
type of soil but was considerable at high EC. For Temora soil (mentioned earlier)
saturated with tap water, Topp et al. (2000) obtained ea that was very close to er
and ei was negligible at water contents < 0.14 m3 m3. But, for water contents
Figure 4. The variation of the real er and imaginary ei part of dielectric constant and TDR-measured
apparent dielectric constant ea of electrolyte solutions with their electrical conductivity s (dS m1). In cal-
culating er and ei , a frequency of 0.127 GHz ð¼ 0:8 109 rad s1 Þ (according to Wyseure et al., 1997) was
used.
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY PROBLEMS 255
Figure 5. The relationship between the TDR-measured apparent dielectric constant ea and electrical con-
ductivity s (dS m1) of Na-bentonite both as a function of the volumetric water content uðm3 m3 Þ of the
samples.
> 0.15 m3 m3, ei increased very steeply with water content, equaling or exceeding
the magnitude of er at conditions of high salt (0.05 M KCl) and water content.
Figure 5 shows the inter-relationship between the TDR-measured ea, volumetric
water content y, and electrical conductivity s of Na-bentonite samples. The EC of
the bentonite increased with increasing y of the samples from their air dry condition
(y ¼ 0.16 m3 m3, w ¼ 14%) and leveled off at about y ¼ 0.60 m3 m3 (w ¼ 50%).
Then the EC decreased gradually with further increase in y but increased again
at higher values of y (Figure 5). The highest EC was 3.88 dS m1, which was
obtained at the lowest limit of saturated water content of the samples. Under satu-
rated condition, EC decreased from 3.88 dS m1 at y ¼ 0.60 m3 m3 (w ¼ 50%) to
1.29 dS m1 at y ¼ 0.96 m3 m3 (w ¼ 1000%). The TDR-measured ea, which depends
predominantly upon the water content, increased from 4.7 at y ¼ 0.16 m3 m3
(w ¼ 14%) to 20.3 at y ¼ 0.24 m3 m3 (w ¼ 200%); the EC increased from
0.08 dS m1 to 1.65 dS m1. At this EC, the energy loss of the TDR waveform
as quantified in terms of ei became considerable. With further increase in EC
due to increased y, the energy loss also increased and caused attenuation of the
waveform. When EC increased to about 3.0 dS m1, the waveform was completely
attenuated (wave 2 in Figure 3) and the program algorithm failed to analyze it for
dielectric constant. This situation appeared for y ranging between 0.46 m3 m3 and
0.87 m3 m3 (w ¼ 31% and 250%) in our measurements. The TDR-measured
dielectric constants of the bentonite samples with EC > 3.0 dS m1 were irrationally
high (Figure 5) because of the failure of the program algorithm to analyze the atte-
nuated waveforms. In the saturated bentonite, the EC decreased with increasing y
and the reflected waveform reappeared and enabled the program algorithm to
256 M. A. MOJID ET AL.
analyze it. The dielectric constant continued increasing with increased dilution of
the suspension.
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