Neutron moisture gauge

Water is the most important limiting factor for crop production in many areas of the world. The efficient use of water in irrigation systems requires continuous monitoring of the moisture content of soil. Neutron moisture gauges are ideal instruments for this purpose and help soil physicists to make the best use of limited water resources. Through these methods, traditional irrigation methods are improved and in some cases up to 40% of the water can be saved. 

Neutron moisture gauges Neutron transmission and scatter methods can be used to measure total hydrogen content, and assumes a constant hydrocarbon hydrogen. 

Americium (am)— A silvery metal that is a man-made element whose isotopes am-237 through am-246 are all radioactive trace quantities of americium are widely used in smoke detectors and as neutron sources in neutron moisture gauges. 

Americium (am) a silvery metal that is a man-made element whose isotopes am-237 through am-246 are all radioactive trace quantities of americium are widely used in smoke detectors, and as neutron sources in neutron moisture gauges Analysis approach selecting one of two primary approaches for FEMA one is the hardware approach that lists individual hardware items and analyzes their possible failure modes and the second is the functional approach that recognizes that every item is designed to perform a number of outputs within a system... 

With the availability of small, relatively intense radioisotopic neutron sources, radiation gauging with neutrons has become an important technique in the inspection of energetic materials. Applications have included nondestructive measurement of moisture in expls, determination of charge weight and fill height in sealed ammo cartridges and in detection of concealed expls... 

Measurement of Low Concentrations of Moisture by Fast Neutron Gauging (Refs 7 13)... 

Fig 15 Relative Counts as a Function of Moisture Content for Powdered Materials by Fast Neutron Gauging... 

For sand, K nitrate and BlkPdr, the lowest measurable moisture concn is 0.2 wt %, These three solids are hydrogen-free materials. Dry Amm nitrate, on the other hand, contains 5 wt % of inherent hydrogen. The fractional increase in hydrogen density with increasing amounts of moisture is therefore smaller than for the non-hydrogen containing solids, and this is borne out by the exptl data. Nevertheless, it is still possible to measure 0.3 wt % moisture in Amm nitrate by fast neutron gauging... 

The interaction of neutrons for the measurement of moisture or hydrogeneous content on relatively small size samples, of an order suitable for lab purposes or for in-plant process and quaUty control, has been the subject of only a few investigations (Ref 7). In the case of small sample size, the approach and necessary equipment are closely related to gamma-ray gauging and thus, when the source of radiation is neutrons, the technique can be appropriately referred to as neutron gauging... 

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