Methods and systems for measuring the density of material including a non-nuclear moisture property detector

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10690578-B2
Application number	US-201816174393-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2018
Priority date	Aug 30, 2005
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer program products for measuring the density of a material. According to one aspect, a material property gauge includes a nuclear density gauge for measuring the density of a material. A radiation source adapted to emit radiation into a material and a radiation detector operable to produce a signal representing the detected radiation. A first material property calculation function may calculate a value associated with the density of the material based upon the signal produced by the radiation detector. The material property gauge includes an electromagnetic moisture property gauge that determines a moisture property of the material. An electromagnetic field generator may generate an electromagnetic field where the electromagnetic field sweeps through one or more frequencies and penetrates into the material. An electromagnetic sensor may determine a frequency response of the material to the electromagnetic field across the several frequencies.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A material property system for measuring a density of a sample construction material, the material property system comprising:
a radiation source configured to emit radiation into the sample construction material; a radiation detector positioned apart from the radiation source, configured to detect radiation from the sample construction material, and to generate a signal representative of the detected radiation;
a non nuclear moisture determination apparatus configured to gravimetrically determine a moisture content of the sample construction material and to generate a signal representative of the moisture content; and
a material property calculation function configured to calculate a bulk density value associated with the sample construction material based upon the signal representative of the detected radiation and the signal representative of the moisture content.

2. The material property system of claim 1 , wherein the radiation source is configured to be positioned one of within an interior of the sample construction material and upon a surface of the sample construction material.

3. The material property system of claim 1 , wherein the sample construction material comprises a material selected from the group consisting of cement, soil, asphalt, pavement, stone, sub-base material, and sub-grade material.

4. The material property system of claim 1 , further configured to determine a mass loss evaporated and a percent moisture.

5. The material property system of claim 1 , wherein the moisture is used to correct for yielding a dry density or modulus.

6. The material property system of claim 1 , wherein the moisture content apparatus is positioned at least one of apart from a body of the material property system and integrated with the material property system.

7. The material property system of claim 1 , wherein the non nuclear moisture determination apparatus is configured to gravimetrically determine the moisture content using a form of evaporation.

8. A material property gauge for measuring the density of a construction material, the material property gauge comprising:
(a) a radiation source positioned for emitting radiation into a sample construction material;
(b) a radiation detector positioned apart from the radiation source and configured to detect radiation from the sample construction material and to produce a signal representing the detected radiation;
(c) a non-nuclear moisture content detector configured to determine a moisture content of the sample construction material and to produce a signal representing the moisture content; and
(d) a material property calculation function configured to calculate a density value associated with the sample construction material based upon the signal representing the detected radiation and the signal representing the moisture content.

9. The material property density gauge of claim 8 wherein the radiation source is adapted to be positioned in one of an interior of the sample construction material and a surface of the sample construction material.

10. The material property gauge of claim 8 wherein the sample construction material comprises a material selected from the group consisting of cement, soil, asphalt, pavement, stone, sub-base material, and sub-grade material.

11. The material property gauge of claim 8 wherein the radiation detector includes one of a scintillation-type, solid state-type, Geiger Mueller-type, and a gas filled-type gamma radiation detector.

12. The material property gauge of claim 8 wherein the non-nuclear moisture content detector is an electromagnetic device.

13. The material property gauge of claim 8 wherein the non-nuclear moisture content detector is one of a capacitance device, a time or frequency domain reflectometer-based device.

14. The material property gauge of claim 8 wherein the non-nuclear moisture content detector determines one or more of permittivity, conductivity, a resistivity, and a dielectric constant of the sample construction material for calculating a moisture content of the sample construction material.

15. The material property gauge of claim 8 wherein the non-nuclear moisture content detector is one of integrated into the material property gauge and located external to the material property gauge.

16. The material property gauge of claim 8 comprising an input means for manually receiving the signal representing the moisture content.

17. The material property system of claim 8 , wherein the non-nuclear moisture content detector is configured to gravimetrically determine the moisture content using a form of evaporation.

18. A method for measuring the density of a sample construction material, the method comprising:
(a) directing radiation into a sample construction material;
(b) detecting radiation from the sample construction material;
(c) producing a signal of the detected radiation;
(d) determining a water content of the sample construction material using non-nuclear means;
(e) producing a signal representing the water content; and
(f) calculating a property value associated with the sample construction material based upon the signal representing the detected radiation signal and the signal representing the water content.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the sample construction material comprises a material selected from the group consisting of cement soil, asphalt, pavement, stone, sub-base material, and sub-grade material.

20. The method of claim 18 comprising: (g) determining one or more of a permittivity, conductivity, resistivity, and a dielectric constant of the sample construction material based on the signal representing the water content; and (h) calculating a water content of the sample construction material based on the one or more of permittivity, conductivity, resistivity, and dielectric constant of the sample construction material.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein determining a water content of the sample construction material includes determining the water content one of gravimetrically, volumetrically, electromagnetically, chemically, thermally, by evaporation or by absorption means.

22. The method of claim 18 , wherein determining water content comprises gravimetrically determining water content using a form of evaporation.

Assignees

• Troxler Electronic Lab Inc

Inventors

• Troxler Robert Ernest
• Dep Wewage Hiran Linus

Classifications

• G01N23/06 Primary

  and measuring the absorption · CPC title

• G01N19/10

  Measuring moisture content, e.g. by measuring change in length of hygroscopic filament; Hygrometers · CPC title

• G01N23/005

  by using neutrons (G01N23/02 - G01N23/227 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01N27/048

  for determining moisture content of the material · CPC title

• G01N23/203

  Measuring back scattering · CPC title