Hamsa Nimer
Rabah Ismail
Adnan Rawashdeh
Hashem Al-Mattarneh
Mohanad Khodier
Randa Hatamleh
Musab Abuaddous

Soil pollution caused by hydrocarbons, such as diesel, poses significant risks to both human health and the ecosystem. The evaluation of soil pollution and various soil engineering applications often relies on the analysis of complex permittivity, encompassing parameters such as dielectric constant and dielectric loss. Various computational models, including theoretical physics-based models, mixture theory models, statistical empirical models, and artificial neural network (ANN) models, have been explored for computing soil complex permittivity and predicting water and pollutant content. Theoretical models require detailed data that is often unavailable, and thus have limited applicability. Mixture models tend to underestimate soil characteristics due to inaccuracies in permittivity estimation of soil phases. While empirical models are widely used, their applicability is restricted to specific soil types, datasets, and locations. ANN models offer promising predictions, accommodating nonlinear phenomena and allowing for missing information and variables. In this study, capacitive electromagnetic electrode sensors were utilized to determine the complex permittivity of soil contaminated with varying levels of diesel at different moisture levels. Theoretical mixture, empirical, and Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) models were employed to compute the permittivity of polluted soil based on its phases and to predict the level of diesel pollution. A comparison of these modeling approaches revealed that the FFNN model exhibited the best performance. The ANN model demonstrated superior performance metrics, including a high correlation coefficient and lower mean square error. Specifically, the correlation coefficients for the FFNN model were ۰.۹۹۴۲ for training samples, ۰.۹۹۶۷ for validation samples, and ۰.۹۹۷۷ for test samples. Additionally, the ANN model yielded the lowest mean square error compared to the other three models. Doi: ۱۰.۲۸۹۹۱/CEJ-۲۰۲۴-۰۱۰-۰۹-۰۱۸ Full Text: PDF

Complex Permittivity; Dielectric Properties; Soil; Diesel Contamination; Water Content; Artificial Neural Network; Artificial Intelligence.