NUKLEONIKA 2005, 50(4):173-177

The soil water retention curve (SWRC) represents a fundamental part of the characterization of the soil hydraulic properties. The establishment of SWRC is usually time-consuming and presents several problems such as the difficulty of a correct judgment of the time of equilibrium. This work presents a new methodology that involves gamma-ray beam attenuation technique associated with the traditional pressure chambers, having as objective the more precise judgment of the time to attain equilibrium. The gamma-ray source used has an activity of 3.7 GBq consisting of ²⁴¹Am, with peak energy of 59.54 keV. For the determination of retention curves using the gamma-ray attenuation technique, an acrylic pressure chamber was projected and constructed to be positioned between the source and detector with the gamma-ray beam crossing the center of the chamber and the soil sample during water extraction. The proposed technique allowed, through a specifically elaborated software for data acquisition, to evaluate with precision the exact instant of the equilibrium and, consequently, to obtain the right moment to change the chamber pressure to a new desired level, leading to a reduction of the time required for the whole retention curve determination. The results obtained show that the gamma-ray attenuation technique can be very useful as an auxiliary tool to evaluate SWRC, utilizing the Richards chamber.