Determination of moisture content in some materials using linear attenuation coefficient

The current study focuses on the determination of the moisture content using the method of gamma transmission for some building materials, namely concrete, brick, tile, wood, marble, and ceramic. Measurements were performed using Cs-137 gamma source with an energy of 0.662 MeV and activity of 0.67 mCi. The relative transmission intensity as a function of sample thickness was calculated by locating the material samples between the scintillation detector and the radiation source. Besides, the relationship between the percentage of fractional change in linear attenuation and the moisture content of these materials has been investigated, the results showed that the values in the two methods were closely and the increase in water content leads to an increase in absorption of radiation. Thus, the moisture content is considered a powerful parameter to study the structure of porous materials, which are used in the construction of houses, buildings, bridges, and laboratories.