Soil water use and water storage vary by vegetative management practices, and these practices affect land productivity and hydrologic processes. This study investigated the effects of agroforestry buffers (AB), grass buffers (GB), and biofuel crops (BC), relative to row crops (RC) on soil water use for a claypan soil in northern Missouri, USA. The experiment located at the Greenley Memorial Research Center included RC, AB, GB, and BC established in 1991, 1997, 1997, and 2012, respectively. Soil water reflectometer sensors installed at 5‐, 10‐, 20‐, and 40‐cm depths monitored soil water from April to November in 2017 and 2018. Results showed significant differences in weekly volumetric water content (VWC) among treatments for all four soil depths in 2017 and 2018. Treatments of AB, GB, and BC had lower VWC (16, 37, and 18% on 9 June), (31, 35, and 20% on 18 August), and (43, 49, and 35% on 29 September) in 2017 and (46, 70, and 19% on 24 August) and (31, 34, and 17% on 5 October) in 2018, respectively, in the pre‐recharge periods for the 5‐cm depth compared with the RC. In the post‐recharge period, equal or occasionally slightly higher soil water occurred in the buffer and biofuel treatments compared to the RC. During recharge, larger increases in soil water due to better infiltration were observed in the perennial vegetative practices relative to RC. The results showed that these practices could significantly influence soil water use and storage compared to RC management, especially for eroded claypan landscapes.
Tillage tools are subject to friction and low-stress abrasive wear processes with the potential deterioration of the desired soil quality, loss of mechanical weed efficacy, and downtime for replacing worn tools. Limited experimental methods exist to quantify investigate the effect of wear-resistant coatings on shape parameters of soil-engaging tools. ASTM standard sand/rubber wheel abrasion and pin-on-disk tests are not able to simulate wear characteristics of the complex shape of the tillage tools. Even though the tribology of tillage tools can be realistic from field tests, tillage wear tests under field conditions are expensive and often challenging to generate repeatable engineeri
Unsaturated soil can raise many geotechnical problems upon wetting and drying resulting in swelling upon wetting and collapsing (shrinkage) in drying and changing in the soil shear strength. The classical principles of saturated soil are often not suitable in explaining these phenomena. In this study, expansive soil (bentonite and sand) were tested in different water contents and dry unit weight chosen from the compaction curve to examine the effect of water content change on soil properties (swelling pressure, expansion index, shear strength (soil cohesion) and soil suction by the filter paper method). The physical properties of these soils were studied by conducting series of tests in laboratory. Fitting methods
... Show MoreA field experiment was implemented during during of crop year 2023-2024 at the Agricultural Engineering Research Station of the University of Baghdad to evaluate the influence of row orientation and planting density on certain growth traits, grain yield, and quality indices of bread wheat cultivars. The experiment was designed as a split-plot arrangement within a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The main plots included three wheat cultivars (Iba’a-99, Buhooth-22, and Buhooth-10), while the subplots consisted of three planting densities (80, 100, and 120 kg ha−1), and the sub-sub plots were assigned to two row orientations: East-
The consumption of fossil fuels has caused many challenges, including environmental and climate damage, global warming, and rising energy costs, which has prompted seeking to substitute other alternative sources. The current study explored the microwave pyrolysis of Albizia branches to assess its potential to produce all forms of fuel (solid, liquid, gas), time savings, and effective thermal heat transfer. The impact of the critical parameters on the quantity and quality of the biofuel generation, including time, power levels, biomass weight, and particle size, were investigated. The results revealed that the best bio-oil production was 76% at a power level of 450 W and 20 g of biomass. Additionally, low power levels led to enhanced
... Show MoreThis research is focusing on finding more effective polymers that leads to enhance the rheological properties of Water Base Muds. The experiments are done for different types of mud for all substances which are Polyacrylamide, Xanthan gum, CMC (Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose). This study shows the effect of add polymer to red bentonite mud, effect of add polymer to Iraqi bentonite mud, the effect of add bentonite to polymer mud. The mud properties of Iraqi bentonite blank are enhanced after adding the polymers to the blank mix, CMC gives the highest value of plastic viscosity and Gel strength than others; X-anthan gives the highest value of yield point and gel strength than others. For the red bentonite mud, Polyacrylamide has the highes
... Show MoreThis research is focusing on finding more effective polymers that leads to enhance the rheological properties of Water Base Muds. The experiments are done for different types of mud for all substances which are Polyacrylamide, Xanthan gum, CMC (Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose). This study shows the effect of add polymer to red bentonite mud, effect of add polymer to Iraqi bentonite mud, the effect of add bentonite to polymer mud. The mud properties of Iraqi bentonite blank are enhanced after adding the polymers to the blank mix, CMC gives the highest value of plastic viscosity and Gel strength than others; X-anthan gives the highest value of yield point and gel strength than others. For the red bentonite mud, Polyacrylamide ha
... Show MoreA field experiment was conducted during the autumn of 2021 at the Agricultural Research Department station / Abu Ghraib to evaluate the soil moisture, water potential distribution, and growth factors of maize crops under alternating and constant partial drip irrigation methods. In the experiment, two irrigation systems were used, surface drip irrigation (DI) and subsurface irrigation (SD); under each irrigation system, five irrigation methods were: conventional irrigation (CI), and 75 and 50% of the amount of water of CI of each of the alternating partial irrigation APRI75 and APRI50 and the constant partial irrigation FPRI75 and FPRI50 respectively. The results showed that the water depth for conventional irrigation (C1) was 658.3
... Show MoreThe present study aims to evaluate the biosorption of reactive orange dye by using garden grass. Experiments were carried out in a batch reactor to obtain equilibrium and thermodynamic data. Experimental parameters affecting the biosorption process such as pH, shaking time, initial dye concentrations, and temperature were thoroughly examined. The optimum pH for removal was found to be 4. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated that the electronegative groups on the surface of garden grass were the major groups responsible for the biosorption process. Four sorption isotherm models were employed to analyze the experimental data of which Temkin and Pyzhey model was found to be most suitable one. The maxim
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