An experiment was carried out to study the effect of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil texture on the distance of the wetting front, cumulative water infiltration (I), infiltration rate (IR), saturated water conductivity (Ks), and water holding capacity (WHC). Three levels ( 0, 10, 20, and 30 g OC kg-1 ) from organic carbon (OC) were mixed with different soil materials sandy, loam, and clay texture soils. Field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) were estimated. Soil materials were placed in transparent plastic columns(12 cm soil column ), and water infiltration(I) was measured as a function of time, the distance of the wetting front and Ks. Results showed that advance wetting front as a function of time for soil column was 6 minutes and with no differences between OC levels for sandy soils, while it ranged between 90 minutes (0% OC) - 130 minutes (3% OC) for loam soils, and between 470 minutes (0 %OC) and 590 minutes (1%OC) for clay soils, at the same time cumulative water infiltration(I) increases at the beginning of infiltration and decreases with time and levels of OC. The highest infiltration values were in sandy soils, giving data of 0.05 and 0.12 cm min-1, with no significant differences with OC rates. IR values decreased when OC increased in loam soils, and IR increased exponentially in clay soils with increasing OC levels. The values of Ks decrease with increasing OC for sandy and loam soils, and increase when OC increases above 3% for clay soils. FC and WP values were increased for sandy, loam and clay soils when OC was increased. The AW values decreased for both sandy and clay soils compared to loam soils. It can be concluded that AW can be estimated from FC values regardless of texture and OC by the linear function: AW=0.51(FC)+0.005.
Soil wetted pattern from a subsurface drip plays great importance in the design of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system for delivering the required water directly to the roots of the plant. An equation to estimate the dimensions of the wetted area in soil are taking into account water uptake by roots is simulated numerically using HYDRUS (2D/3D) software. In this paper, three soil textures namely loamy sand, sandy loam, and loam soil were used with three different types of crops tomato, pepper, and cucumber, respectively, and different values of drip discharge, drip depth, and initial soil moisture content were proposed. The soil wetting patterns were obtained at every thirty minutes for a total time of irrigation equ
... Show MoreNaturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) contaminated sites at Al-Rumaila Iraqi oil fields have been characterized as a part of soil remediation project. Activity of radium isotopes in contaminated soil have been determined using gamma spectrometer High Purity Germanium detector (HPGe) and found to be very high for Al-Markezia, Al-Qurainat degassing stations and storage area at Khadhir Almay region. The activity concentration of samples ranges from 6474.11±563.8 Bq/kg to 1232.5±60.9 Bq/kg with mean value of 3853.3 Bq/kg for 226Ra, 843.59±8.39 Bq/kg to 302.2±9.2 Bq/kg with mean value of 572.9 Bq/kg for 232Th and 294.31±18.56 Bq/kg to 156.64±18.1 Bq/kg with mean value of 225.5 for 40K. S
... Show MoreWhen the depth of stressed soil is rather small, Plate Load Test (PLT) becomes the most efficient test to estimate the soil properties for design purposes. Among these properties, modulus of subgrade reaction is the most important one that usually employed in roads and concrete pavement design. Two methods are available to perform PLT: static and dynamic methods. Static PLT is usually adopted due to its simplicity and time saving to be performs in comparison with cyclic (dynamic) method. The two methods are described in ASTM standard.
In this paper the effect of the test method used in PLT in estimation of some mechanical soil properties was distinguished via a series of both test methods applied in a same site. The comparison of
... Show MoreGypseous soils are spread in several regions in the world including Iraq, where it covers more than 28.6% [1] of the surface region of the country. This soil, with high gypsum content causes different problems in construction and strategic projects. As a result of water flow through the soil mass, permeability and chemical arrangement of these soils vary over time due to the solubility and leaching of gypsum. In this study the soil of 36% gypsum content, is taken from one location about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Baghdad, where the sample is taken from depth (0.5 - 1) m below the natural ground surface and mixed with (3%, 6%, 9%) of Copolymer and Styrene-butadiene Rubber to improve t
The raw material soil of Al-Sowera factory quarry (quarry soil and mixture) used for building brick industry was tested mineralogically, geochemically and geotechnically. Mineral components of soil are characterized by Clay minerals (Palygoriskite and chlorite) and nonclay minerals like calcite, quratz, feldspar, gypsum and halite. The raw material is deficient in SiO2, Al2O3, K2O, Fe2O3 and MgO, while enriched in CaO. Loss on ignition and Na2O are in suitable level and appear to be concordant with the standard. Grain size analyses show that the decreasing sand and clay, and increasing silt ratio in both quarry soil and mixture caused decreasing in strength of brick during molding and after firing. The quarry soil is characterized by high p
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