An investigation into the use of a mixture model for simulating the electrical properties of soil with varying effective saturation levels for sub-soil imaging using ECT

A new visualisation tool is being developed for seed breeders, providing on-line data for each individual plant in a screening programme. It will be used to indicate how efficiently each plant utilises the water and nutrients available in the surrounding soil. This will facilitate early detection of desirable genetic traits with the aim of increased efficiency in identification and delivery of tomorrow's drought tolerant food crops. Visualisation takes the form of Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT), a non-destructive and non-intrusive imaging technique. Measurements are to be obtained for an individual plant thus allowing water and nutrient absorption levels for an individual specimen to be inferred. This paper presents the inverse problem, discusses the inherent challenges and presents the early experimental results. Two mixture models are evaluated for the prediction of electrical capacitance measurement data for varying effective soil saturation levels using a finite element model implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics. These early studies have given the research team an understanding of the technical challenges that must now be addressed to take the current research into the world of agri-science and food supply.