Moisture content is a critical factor that affects the engineering behavior of soils, especially cohesive soils. Therefore, the monitoring and determination of the water content is an essential task in an experimental study in the field of geotechnical engineering. There are different techniques and standards to measure soil water content. ASTM D2216 is a laboratory standard test method for the determination of water content of the soil widely used in the United States as well as many other places around the world. The complete drying process of a soil sample in a conventional laboratory oven for twenty-four hours is the core of this standard. However, the process is rather time-consuming. On the other hand, halogen moisture analyzers reduce the time required to determine the soil water content significantly. This study focuses on assessing the applicability and precision of the halogen moisture analyzers versus the conventional laboratory ovens to obtain the soil moisture content. For this purpose, different soil types, cohesive and granular, at different moisture contents were tested using both methods. The conventional measurement method of soil moisture content according to ASTM D2216 as the reference. The results obtained by the halogen moisture analyzer were compared with the results obtained by the conventional method. The results were in good agreement, and the comparison showed that the halogen moisture analyzer is a fast, simple, and relatively inexpensive alternative method to determine the soil moisture content. Consequently, a halogen moisture analyzer as an energy-efficient device can measure soil moisture content with a reliable and relatively automated process minimizing user errors.
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