Representative Elementary Length to Measure Soil Mass Attenuation Coefficient

With increasing demand for better yield in agricultural areas, soil physical property representative measurements are more and more essential. Nuclear techniques such as computerized tomography (CT) and gamma-ray attenuation (GAT) have been widely employed with this purpose. The soil mass attenuation coefficient (μ (s)) is an important parameter for CT and GAT analysis. When experimentally determined (μ (es)), the use of suitable sized samples enable to evaluate it precisely, as well as to reduce measurement time and costs. This study investigated the representative elementary length (REL) of sandy and clayey soils for μ (es) measurements. Two radioactive sources were employed ((241)Am and (137)Cs), three collimators (2–4 mm diameters), and 14 thickness (x) samples (2–15 cm). Results indicated ideal thickness intervals of 12–15 and 2–4 cm for the sources (137)Cs and (241)Am, respectively. The application of such results in representative elementary area (REA) evaluations in clayey soil clods via CT indicated that μ (es) average values obtained for x > 4 cm and source (241)Am might induce to the use of samples which are not large enough for soil bulk density evaluations (ρ (s)). As a consequence, ρ (s) might be under- or overestimated, generating inaccurate conclusions about the physical quality of the soil under study.