Thirty-two soil samples were collected from the study area in October 2020 for geochemical and pollutants investigation of Shwan Sub-basin soil. All soil samples were analysed for different geochemical analyses. The analysis results revealed that the pH values in soil samples ranged from 7.12 to 7.56 with a mean of 7.327. According to the pH values detected in the soil samples, the soil is classified as neutral soil. The electrical conductivity ranged from 0.92 mmhos/cm to 7.8 mmhos/cm with a mean of 1.53 mmhos/cm. Thus, according to the detected electrical conductivity values, the soil was classified as non-saline to slightly saline. The organic matter ranged from 1.14% to 1.45% with a mean value of 1.326 %, while total organic carbon ranged from 0.66 % to 0.84 % with a mean value of 0.769 % which indicated the soil was characterized by low organic content. The results of the geochemical analysis revealed that the major and minor element mean concentrations were in the order Si> Ca> Al> Fe> Mg > K> Ti> Na> P> Mn> S> Cl> N. The average concentrations of trace elements in soil samples followed the decreasing order Sr > Cr> Ba> Zr> Ni> V> Zn> Ta> Rb> Cu> Nb> Y> Pb> Co> Ga> Mo> As> Th> Br> Sn> I. Furthermore, the comparison between heavy metal concentrations in the soil of the study area and metal concentrations in the world soil limit and Indirect Geochemical Background revealed an increase in metal concentrations of Cr, Ni, Zn, Co, As, Mo and Ta. Multivariate statistical analyses, such as Principal Component Analysis and Agglomerative Hierarchal Cluster Analysis, identified the potential sources of pollutants in the soil. Most metals are from natural sources and some of them are from anthropogenic sources mostly from agricultural activities mainly fertilizers use and the waste of animals breeding on farms. Besides industrial activities such as deposits of pollutants from emissions of petroleum refineries located inside or close to the study area. In addition, building blocks and paint factories.
In the case where a shallow foundation does not satisfy with design requirements alone, the addition of a pile may be suitable to improve the performance of the foundation design. The lack of in-situ data and the complexity of the issues caused by lagging in the research area of pile foundations are notable. In this study, different types of piles were used under the same geometric conditions to determine the load-settlement relationships with various sandy soil relative densities. The ultimate pile capacity for each selected pile is obtained from a modified California Bearing Ratio (CBR) machine to be suitable for axial pile loading. Based on the results, the values of Qu for close-ended square pile were increased by 15
... Show MoreGypseous soil is considered as a problematic soil for embankment construction, however, implementation of emulsified asphalt as a stabilization agent could be a proper solution for enhancing its properties as a subgrade soil. In this work, the sustainability of asphalt stabilized soil has been assessed in terms of its resistance to cyclic (freezing-thawing) and (heating-cooling) processes. Specimens have been prepared at optimum fluid content (moisture and emulsion) and tested under direct shear stresses while subjected to 30 cycles of (freezing-thawing) and (heating-cooling). Both of dry and soaked testing conditions have been implemented. Data have been observed after each 10 cycles, and compared with that of reference mix. It was conclud
... Show MoreThe aim of this research work is to study the effect of stabilizing gypseous soil, which covers vast areas in the middle, west and south parts of Iraq, using liquid asphalt on its strength properties to be used as a base course layer replacing the traditional materials of coarse aggregate and broken stones which are scarce at economical prices and hauling distances. Gypseous soil brought from Al-Ramadi City, west of Iraq, with gypsum content of 66.65%, medium curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), and hydrated lime are used in this study. The conducted tests on untreated and treated gypseous soil with different percentages of medium curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), water, and lime were: unconfined compression strength, and one dimensional confine
... Show MoreThere are many aims of this book: The first aim is to develop a model equation that describes the spread of contamination through soils which can be used to determine the rate of environmental contamination by estimate the concentration of heavy metals (HMs) in soil. The developed model equation can be considered as a good representation for a problem of environmental contamination. The second aim of this work is to design two feed forward neural networks (FFNN) as an alternative accurate technique to determine the rate of environmental contamination which can be used to solve the model equation. The first network is to simulate the soil parameters which can be used as input data in the second suggested network, while the second network sim
... Show MoreThe hydrolysis of urea by the enzyme urease is significant for increasing the irroles in human pathogenicity, biocementation, soil fertilizer, and subsequently in soil improvement. This study devoted to the isolation of urease from urea-rich soil samples collected from seven different locations. Isolation of the various bacterial species was conducted using nutrient agar. The identity of isolated urease was based on morphological characteristics and standard microbiological and biochemical procedures. The urease producing strains of bacteria were obtained using the urease hydrolysis test. The bacterial isolates produced from soil samples collected from different environments and treat
This study has been undertaken to investigate the mineralogical properties and morphological features of sand fraction in some soils of Baghdad / Iraq.The morphological features of sand fractions were studied by Polarized optical microscope. Results have shown that the grains of these minerals from samples of sands have different colors, those from the surface horizons have dark brownish spots, due to staining by organic matter, and have a yellowish– to yellowish brown spots due to accumulation of Iron oxides.Results of light minerals indicated that quartz is dominant due to effect of parent material of these soils. Two types of opaque minerals (black and brown) are found, whereas t
Pseudomonas putidaPST-1 isolate isolated from soil of plant root was used for high production of indole acetic acid. Indole acetic acid (IAA) production is a major property of rhizosphere bacteria that stimulate and facilitate plant growth. Optimization of indole acetic acid production was carried out at different cultural conditions of pH temperature, incubation period, and the amount of inoculum of bacteria. The best chemical medium for high IAA production (82 Mg/ml) was Luria-Bertani broth medium consisted of 1.2gm tryptophan and 10gm peptone in their components, while the cheese whey medium was the best natural medium for IAA production was (66 Mg/ml). IAA production byPseudomonas putida PST-1 was optimized by studying some factors t
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