USA as Represented by Secretary of the Navy

The United States of America

William T Elam

Earl F Skelton

Alan W Webb

A cone-tipped penetrometer for in situ analysis of soil or sediment by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Rather than using a radioactive source, a miniature x-ray tube is powered by a filament isolation transformer located inside the penetrometer pipe which has an outside diameter of about 2 inches or less. The x-rays pass out through a special x-ray transmissive window, such as a low metal impurity-containing high strength boron carbide, into the soil or sediment below the surface and the resulting x-rays from the metals in the soil or sediment return through the window to a detector. The signal is transmitted back up to the surface where the x-rays are quantitatively analyzed to determine the concentration of metals in the soil. This real-time in situ x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy of soil or sediment samples permits field analysis of hazardous waste sites and other underground soil and underwater sediments.

Cone penetrometer utilizing an X-ray fluorescence metals sensor

Specimen particles in pressurized liquid sea are reoriented by magnetic stirring as a magnetic field surrounding the particles changes direction and the particle reorient themselves to respond to the change. Nonmagnetic particles as well as magnetic particles can be reoriented by simply including magnetic particles along with the nonmagnetic particles in the sea so that the magnetic particles collide with the nonmagnetic particles or attach to them so as to reorient them (individual particles) as they themselves reorient is response to change in direction of the magnetic field.

Growing community of inventors

Alexandria, VA, United States of America

William T Elam