Perennial biofuel and cover crops systems are important for enhancing soil health and can provide numerous soil, agricultural, and environmental benefits. The study objective was to investigate the effects of cover crops and biofuel crops on soil hydraulic properties relative to traditional management for claypan soils. The study site included selected management practices: cover crop (CC) and no cover crop (NC) with corn/soybean rotation, switchgrass (SW), and miscanthus (MI). The CC mixture consisted of cereal rye, hairy vetch, and Austrian winter pea. The research site was located at Bradford Research Center in Missouri, USA, and was implemented on a Mexico silt loam. Intact soil cores (76‐mm diam. by 76‐mm long) were taken from the 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm depths with three plot replicates and two sub‐samples per plot replicate per depth. Soil hydraulic properties evaluated for each sample included: saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), water retention, bulk density, and pore size distributions. Results showed with the test of Duncan's least significant differences that treatments of MI (1.18 Mg m−3) and SW (1.21 Mg m−3) had lower values of bulk density averaging across soil depth than CC (1.27 Mg m−3) and NC (1.31 Mg m). Management systems significantly increased Ksat with the biofuel treatments at 0–10 cm compared to NC system. The MI management showed a significant increase in macroporosity and fine mesoporosity as compared to other management systems. Slight changes have occurred in the measured soil physical properties for CC system compared to NC plots. Overall, increasing soil organic matter from more plant roots from long‐term biofuel cropping systems can improve soil water storage and crop productivity.
The present research had dealt with preparing bars with the length of about (13 cm) and adiametar of (1.5 cm) of composite materials with metal matrix represented by (Al-Cu-Mg) alloy cast enforced by (ZrO2) particles with chosen weight percentages (1.5, 2.5 ,3.5, 5.5 %). The base cast and the composite materials were prepared by casting method by uses vortex Technique inorder to fix up (ZrO2) particles in homogeneous way on the base cast. In addition to that, two main groups of composite materials were prepared depending on the particles size of (ZrO2) , respectively. &n
... Show MoreAs a reservoir is depleted due to production, pore pressure decreases leading to increased effective stress which causes a reduction in permeability, porosity, and possible pore collapse or compaction. Permeability is a key factor in tight reservoir development; therefore, understanding the loss of permeability in these reservoirs due to depletion is vital for effective reservoir management. The paper presents a case history on a tight carbonate reservoir in Iraq which demonstrates the behavior of rock permeability and porosity as a function of increasing effective stress simulating a depleting mode over given production time. The experimental results show unique models for the decline of permeability and porosity as function effective str
... Show MoreModified asphalt is considered one of the alternatives to address the problems of deficiencies in traditional asphalt concrete, as modified asphalt addresses many of the issues that appear on the pavement layers in asphalt concrete, resulting from heavy traffic and vehicles loaded with loads that exceed the design loads and the large fluctuations in the daily and seasonal temperatures of asphalt concrete. The current study examined the role of polyphosphoric acid (PPA) as a modified material for virgin asphalt when it was added in different proportions (1%, 2%, 3%, 4%) of the asphalt weight. The experimental program includes the volumetric characteristics associated with the Marshall test, the physical properties, and th
... Show MoreBlends of Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) doped with 2% weight percentage of Sn were prepared with different blend ratios using casting technique. The measurements of A.C conductivity σa.c within the frequency range (25kHz – 5MHz) of undoped and Sn doped PMMA/PVA blends obeyed the relationship σ= Aws were the value of s within the range 0 > s > 1. The results showed that σa.c increases with the increase of frequency. The exponent s showed preceding increase with the increase of PVA content for PMMA/PVA blends doped with Sn. The dielectric constant, dielectric loss, A.C electrical conductivity are varied with the concentration of PVA in the blend and frequency of applied electrical field.
A tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding is one of the most popular kinds of welding used to join metals mainly for aluminum alloys. However, many challenges may be met with this kind of joining process; these challenges arise from decay of mechanical properties of welded materials. In the present study, an attempt was made to enhancing the mechanical properties of TIG weld joint of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy by hardening the surfaces using shoot peening technique. To optimize the shoot peening process three times of exposure (5, 10, and 15) min. was used. All peened and unpeened, and welded and unwelded samples were characterized by metallographic test to indicate the phase transformation and modification in microstructure occurring d
... Show MoreBackground Alloys with the addition of zirconium and niobium eliminate the adverse effects of aluminum and vanadium on the nervous system, the possibility of metallosis and the initiation of diseases (including cancers or Alzheimer›s disease). In addition, they have better corrosion resistance, and a Young›s modulus value similar to longitudinal bone tissue. Therefore, only choosing appropriate materials does not guarantee proper functioning of the implants, the surfaces of the implants also have to be suitable to meet the requirements. The laser surface hardening process modifies the surface properties by imparting microstructural changes, whereas surface remelting induces changes in the surface topography, roughness, wettability and w
... Show MoreThis research was aimed to determine the petrophysical properties (porosity, permeability and fluid saturation) of a reservoir. Petrophysical properties of the Shuiaba Formation at Y field are determined from the interpretation of open hole log data of six wells. Depending on these properties, it is possible to divide the Shuiaba Formation which has thickness of a proximately 180-195m, into three lithological units: A is upper unit (thickness about 8 to 15 m) involving of moderately dolomitized limestones; B is a middle unit (thickness about 52 to 56 m) which is composed of dolomitic limestone, and C is lower unit ( >110 m thick) which consists of shale-rich and dolomitic limestones. The results showed that the average formation water
... Show MoreWaste materials might be utilized in various applications, such as sustainable roller compacted concrete pavements (RCCP), to lessen the negative environmental consequences of construction waste. The impacts of utilizing (brick, thermostone, granite, and ceramic) powders on the mechanical characteristics of RCCP are investigated in this study. To achieve this, the waste materials were crushed, grounded, and blended before being utilized as filler in the RCCP. After the mixes were prepared, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, water absorption, density, and porosity were all determined. According to the research results, adding some of these powders, mainly brick and granite powder, enhances the mechanical
... Show More