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Interpretation of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) circuit model for soils

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Abstract

Based on three different kinds of conductive paths in microstructure of soil and theory of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), an integrated equivalent circuit model and impedance formula for soils were proposed, which contain 6 meaningful resistance and reactance parameters. Considering the conductive properties of soils and dispersion effects, mathematical equations for impedance under various circuit models were deduced and studied. The mathematical expression presents two semicircles for theoretical EIS Nyquist spectrum, in which the center of one semicircle is degraded to simply the equivalent model. Based on the measured parameters of EIS Nyquist spectrum, meaningful soil parameters can easily be determined. Additionally, EIS was used to investigate the soil properties with different water contents along with the mathematical relationships and mechanism between the physical parameters and water content. Magnitude of the impedance decreases with the increase of testing frequency and water content for Bode graphs. The proposed model would help us to better understand the soil microstructure and properties and offer more reasonable explanations for EIS spectra.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Peng-ju Han  (韩鹏举), Ya-feng Zhang  (张亚芬), Frank Y. Chen  (陈幼佳) & Xiao-hong Bai  (白晓红)

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, The Penn State University, Harrisburg, PA, 17057, USA

    Frank Y. Chen  (陈幼佳)

Authors
  1. Peng-ju Han  (韩鹏举)
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  2. Ya-feng Zhang  (张亚芬)
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  3. Frank Y. Chen  (陈幼佳)
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  4. Xiao-hong Bai  (白晓红)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frank Y. Chen  (陈幼佳).

Additional information

Foundation item: Projects(51208333, 51078253) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Projects(2014011036-1, 2014131019, TYUT2014YQ017, OIT2015) supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province, China

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Han, Pj., Zhang, Yf., Chen, F.Y. et al. Interpretation of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) circuit model for soils. J. Cent. South Univ. 22, 4318–4328 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-015-2980-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-015-2980-1

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