Temperature Controlled Microwave Drying of Soils

The use of temperature controlled microwave drying for the rapid determination of the moisture content of clay soils was investigated. Six soils having plasticity indexes ranging from five to fifty were tested. Temperature controlled microwave drying correlated greatly with water contents obtained from conventional temperature controlled drying. Drying at full microwave power without temperature control indicated higher water contents than drying by conventional means. Compared to the conventional oven method, drying times were approximately 13 times faster when full power microwave techniques were used and two to seven times faster when temperature controlled microwave operations were used.