Journal of the Korean Geo-Environmental Society ISSN:1598-0820(Print) 2714-1233(Online) 한국지반환경공학회 논문집

As electromagnetic waves are affected by electrical conductivity or permittivity, they are widely used to evaluate geotechnical characteristics. In this study, a probe for measuring electromagnetic waves using a time domain reflectometry is manufactured to evaluate heavy metal concentration in saline water. In the experiments, a copper is used as a heavy metal, and a probe is demonstrated with the concentration of copper. Solutions were set for 8 different copper concentration (0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 mg/L) in saline water with 3% salinity. The probe is coated by electrical insulating materials such as epoxy, top-coat, varnish, acrylic paint, heat-shrinkage tube to measure electromagnetic waves in saline water. The measured signals are compared according to coating material. As results, for probes coated with acrylic paint and heat-shrinkage tube, signal variation is not detected. For epoxy, top-coat, and varnish coated probes, the voltage decreases with an increase of copper concentration. Probes coated by epoxy at once and top coat can estimate under 5 mg/L of copper concentration and the probe coated by epoxy twice can estimate over 5 mg/L of copper concentration. This study shows that the probe using the time domain reflectometry can be used to evaluate the concentration of heavy metal in saline water by coating the probe with insulating material.