Adek Percometer
Dielectricity Measurements
Dielectricity is an electrical property that reveals the amount of free water in the material's pores. Dielectric properties can also be utilised for example when measuring the void content of asphalt pavement. The electrical conductivity of a material can disclose, for example, the salt content or ionic concentration in the pore water.
The amount of free water in soils, road structures or building structures has a great significance to the behaviour of the materials. Excessive free water can cause segregation ice to form in subgrade soils and road structures. Large amounts of free water can also result in structure breakage caused by a positive pressure of pore water in the material under load. In building structures free water causes structural deterioration and forms a base for fungus growth.
Dielectric value measurements are used in evaluating frost susceptibility of subgrade soil, for slope stability measurements, for testing the quality of unbound and bound aggregates ( » Tube Suction Test ), and for structural moisture defect surveys. In GPR surveys, dielectric values are required in depth calculations. With a dielectricity meter, the value can be measured on-site or from core, or from subgrade samples. Roadscanners retails and uses Adek Percometer instruments for dielectric value, electrical conductivity, and temperature measurements in its own R&D work and road condition surveys.
