Ricerc@Sapienza

In this paper, a time domain reflectometry (TDR)-based system for measuring water content of raw construction materials is presented. The proposed system relies on the fact that the presence of water leads to an increase of the dielectric permittivity of materials; therefore, from TDR-based permittivity measurements, it is possible to infer the water content value. In practical applications, the proposed system could be used for assessing the intrinsic water content of construction materials before they are poured into the concrete mixture.

In this work, the dielectric permittivity of pietra gentile and pietra leccese (two kinds of stone typically
found in Cultural Heritage structures of Southern Italy), for different levels of moisture content, was characterized.