Abstract
Tomographic image quality in soil physics applications is extremely dependent on calibration. Here, good calibrations of the system are necessary to avoid errors during soil evaluations by computed tomography (CT), which can hamper interpretations of physical parameters of the soil. In order to analyze the relevance of a good calibration curve (CC) for measurements of soil physical properties, determinations of soil bulk density (ρ b ) were obtained using four different CCs established for a homemade CT scanner dedicated especially to soil physics. The calibrations of the system were obtained through the relationship between tomographic units and corresponding linear attenuation coefficients (μ 1) of different materials. Data show that different calibration curves produce distinct ρ b values affecting the quality of results of this soil physical property when evaluated by CT. However, it was demonstrated that even using non-homogeneous materials for CT calibration the results of ρ b practically are of the same order of magnitude of the whole system error estimated in 0.05 g cm − 3 (taking the water as reference).
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for PQ grants and to Fundação Araucária (protocol no. 10198), Fundo Paraná/SETI and Governo do Paraná for financial support.
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Pires, L.F., Arthur, R.C.J., Bacchi, O.O.S. et al. Representative Gamma-ray Computed Tomography Calibration for Applications in Soil Physics. Braz J Phys 41, 21–28 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13538-011-0009-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13538-011-0009-2