A simple air pressure gauge for unsaturated soils

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 1013-1018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio  Ángel Infante Sedano ◽  
Sai K. Vanapalli ◽  
Vinod K. Garga
Keyword(s):  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Pressure Gauge ◽  
Matric Suction ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Water Characteristics ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Column Pressure ◽  
Boyle’S Law ◽  
Air Column

This paper presents the design details of a simple compressible air column pressure gauge system. The main components of this pressure gauge consist of a Mariotte bottle, plastic tubing, and a graduated scale. This low-cost gauge design is based on applying the principle of Boyle’s law for gases, which makes it particularly well-suited for the measurement of soil–water characteristics of coarse-grained soils, which desaturate at a faster rate, particularly in the low matric suction range of 0–10 kPa. Among its many uses, this precise gauge is best employed in the axis translation technique to measure matric suction in the range of 0–700 kPa.

scholarly journals A Numerical Model to Predict Matric Suction Inside Unsaturated Soils

10.14311/588 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Farouk ◽  
L. Lamboj ◽  
J. Kos
Keyword(s):  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Matric Suction ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Measuring Devices ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Testing Techniques ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Water Contents

The objective of this research is to introduce a numerical simulation model to predict approximate values of the matric suction inside unsaturated soils that have low water contents. The proposed model can be used to predict the relationship between the water content and the matric suction of a studied soil to construct the soil-water characteristic curve. In addition, the model can be utilized to combine the predicted matric suction with the soil parameters obtained experimentally, which enables us to explain how matric suction can affect the behaviour of unsaturated soils, without the need to utilize advanced measuring devices or special testing techniques. The model has given good results, especially when studying coarse-grained soils.

Unsaturated flow in coarse porous media

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff R Reinson ◽  
Delwyn G Fredlund ◽  
G Ward Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Unsaturated Flow ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Matric Suction ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Capillary Barrier ◽  
Coarse Porous Media

Design of effective capillary barrier systems requires a thorough understanding of the soil–water interactions that take place in both coarse- and fine-grained unsaturated soils. Experimental observations of water flow through coarse porous media are presented to gain greater understanding of the processes and mechanisms that contribute to the movement and retention of water in coarse-grained unsaturated soils. The use of pendular ring theory to describe how water is held within a porous material with relatively low volumetric water contents is explored. Experimental measurements of seepage velocity and volumetric water content were obtained for columns of 12 mm glass beads using digital videography to capture the movement of a dye tracer front at several infiltration rates. An estimated curve for hydraulic conductivity versus matric suction is shown and compared to a theoretical curve. The method is shown to provide a reasonable predictive tool.Key words: soil-water characteristic curve, hydraulic conductivity curve, water permeability function, capillary barrier, matric suction.

scholarly journals Effect of osmotic suction on the stability of microaggregations and aggregations in a lateritic soil

2021 ◽  
Vol 337 ◽  
pp. 01012
Author(s):  
Andrea Cardona Pérez ◽  
Ronaldo Vilela Wanderley Neto ◽  
Rosemary Janneth Llanque Ayala ◽  
José Camapum de Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Behaviour ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Matric Suction ◽  
Lateritic Soil ◽  
Ionic Exchange ◽  
Water Characteristics ◽  
Osmotic Suction ◽  
Chemical Products ◽  
Natural Terrain

It has been established that the matric suction is the portion of the total suction that affects, more directly, the mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils, being less considered the effects of the osmotic suction. Considering that in the deeply weathered soils will occur, depending on its chemical-mineralogical characteristics, more or less ionic exchange between the soil particles and the chemical products to which the soil has been exposed to, the study of the osmotic suction and its impact on the soil textural and structural stability becomes relevant. In natural terrain and slopes, the chemical products come mostly from agricultural inputs, while in road constructions they come from additives such as lime and cement that are incorporated to the soil with the objective of enhancing its mechanical behaviour. In the case of cast in situ concrete foundations, part of the concrete’s chemical compounds migrates to the surrounding soil. In all of the above mentioned cases, the matric suction acts on the chemical compounds’ migration process, affecting soil’s osmotic suction. Aiming at assessing the impacts of these chemical compounds on the soil properties and behaviour, soil-water characteristics curves of a lateritic soil mixed with a dolomitic limestone and a fertilizer were evaluated. The results show that, in the case of the fertilizer mixture, the variation of osmotic suction contributed to the disaggregation of the soil.

Measurement of Soil Suction and Soil-Water Characteristics of Bentonite-Sand Mixtures

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pan Hu ◽  
Qing Yang ◽  
Maotian Luan
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Vapor Phase ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Phase Method ◽  
Soil Suction ◽  
Compacted Bentonite ◽  
Water Characteristics ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
High Level

The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is a widely used experimental means for assessing fundamental properties of unsaturated soils for a wide range of soil suction values. The study of SWCC is helpful because some properties of unsaturated soils can be predicted from it. Nowadays, much attention has been paid to the behaviours of highly compacted bentonite-sand mixtures used in engineering barriers for high level radioactive nuclear waste disposal. It is very important to study the various performances of bentonite-sand mixtures in order to insure the safety of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository. After an introduction to vapor phase method and osmotic technique, a laboratory study has been carried out on compacted bentonite-sand mixtures. The SWCC of bentonite-sand mixtures has been obtained and analyzed. The results show that the vapor phase method and osmotic technique is suitable to the unsaturated soils with high and low suction.

scholarly journals Heterogeneous lamella structure unites ultrafine-grain strength with coarse-grain ductility

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (47) ◽  
pp. 14501-14505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolei Wu ◽  
Muxin Yang ◽  
Fuping Yuan ◽  
Guilin Wu ◽  
Yujie Wei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
High Strength ◽  
Back Stress ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Ultrafine Grain ◽  
Asymmetric Rolling ◽  
Dislocation Hardening ◽  
Ultrafine Grained ◽  
Lamella Structure

Grain refinement can make conventional metals several times stronger, but this comes at dramatic loss of ductility. Here we report a heterogeneous lamella structure in Ti produced by asymmetric rolling and partial recrystallization that can produce an unprecedented property combination: as strong as ultrafine-grained metal and at the same time as ductile as conventional coarse-grained metal. It also has higher strain hardening than coarse-grained Ti, which was hitherto believed impossible. The heterogeneous lamella structure is characterized with soft micrograined lamellae embedded in hard ultrafine-grained lamella matrix. The unusual high strength is obtained with the assistance of high back stress developed from heterogeneous yielding, whereas the high ductility is attributed to back-stress hardening and dislocation hardening. The process discovered here is amenable to large-scale industrial production at low cost, and might be applicable to other metal systems.

Comparison of diffused layer prepared using liquid dopant solutions and pastes for solar cell with screen printed electrodes

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazimierz Drabczyk ◽  
Edyta Wróbel ◽  
Grazyna Kulesza-Matlak ◽  
Wojciech Filipowski ◽  
Krzysztof Waczynski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Ethyl Alcohol ◽  
Diffusion Processes ◽  
Phosphorus Oxychloride ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Base Solution ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Two Stages

Purpose The purpose of this study is comparison of the diffusion processes performed using the commercial available dopant paste made by Filmtronics and the original prepared liquid dopant solution. To decrease prices of industrially produced silicon-based solar cells, the new low-cost production processes are necessary. The main components of most popular silicon solar cells are with diffused emitter layer, passivation, anti-reflective layers and metal electrodes. This type of cells is prepared usually using phosphorus oxychloride diffusion source and metal pastes for screen printing. The diffusion process in diffusion furnace with quartz tube is slow, complicated and requires expensive equipment. The alternative for this technology is very fast in-line processing using the belt furnaces as an equipment. This approach requires different dopant sources. Design/methodology/approach In this work, the diffusion processes were made for two different types of dopant sources. The first one was the commercial available dopant paste from Filmtronics and the second one was the original prepared liquid dopant solution. The investigation was focused on dopant sources fabrication and diffusion processes. The doping solution was made in two stages. In the first stage, a base solution (without dopants) was made: dropwise deionized (DI) water and ethyl alcohol were added to a solution consisting of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and 99.8 per cent ethyl alcohol. Next, to the base solution, orthophosphoric acid dissolved in ethyl alcohol was added. Findings Diffused emitter layers with sheet resistance around 60 Ω/sq were produced on solar grade monocrystalline silicon wafers using two types of dopant sources. Originality/value In this work, the diffusion processes were made for two different types of dopant sources. The first one was the commercial available dopant paste from Filmtronics and the second one was the original prepared liquid dopant solution.

Design of a Teaching Robot with Three Degrees of Freedom

2012 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. 325-328
Author(s):  
You Jun Huang ◽  
Ze Lun Li ◽  
Zhi Cheng Huang
Keyword(s):  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Degree Of Freedom ◽  
Good Repeatability ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
Three Degree Of Freedom ◽  
Three Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Application Prospects

A teaching robot with three degree of freedom is designed. The three degrees of freedom are: waist rotation, lifting and stretching of the arm and opening and closing of the gripper. The designs of the main components are: a mobile chassis, parallel rails, horizontal rails and manipulator. The teaching robot designed has the features of low cost, easy to regulation, good repeatability and it has good promotion and application prospects in the field of teaching.

A relationship describing the shear strength of unsaturated soils

1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daud W Rassam ◽  
David J Williams
Keyword(s):  
Shear Strength ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Nonlinear Regression ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Matric Suction ◽  
Linear Increase ◽  
Soil Water Characteristic Curve ◽  
Stress Dependent

A relationship describing the shear-strength profile of a desiccating soil deposit is essential for the purpose of analysis, especially when a numerical method is adopted where each zone in a discretised grid is assigned an elevation-dependent shear-strength value. The matric-suction profile of a desiccating soil deposit is nonlinear. Up to the air-entry value, an increase in matric suction is associated with a linear increase in shear strength. Beyond air entry, as the soil starts to desaturate, a nonlinear increase in shear strength occurs. The soil-water characteristic curve is stress dependent, as is the shear-strength gain as matric suction increases. In this paper, a three-dimensional, nonlinear regression analysis showed that a power-additive function is suitable to describe the variation of the shear strength of unsaturated soils with matric suction. The proposed function incorporates the effect of normal stress on the contribution of matric suction to the shear strength.Key words: air-entry value, matric suction, nonlinear regression, soil-water characteristic curve, tailings, unsaturated shear strength.

scholarly journals Performance Evaluation of Low-Cost Filter in Field Condition

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
K. Nagarajan ◽  
S. Ramya ◽  
T. Thangamani ◽  
A. Selvaperumal ◽  
T. Arthi
Keyword(s):  
Irrigation System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Filter Media ◽  
Micro Irrigation ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Filtration Unit ◽  
Solids Removal ◽  
Media Layer

The parameters require for maintaining the crop's health and the integrity of the irrigation system has a relation with quality of irrigation water. In Micro irrigation appropriate filtration is very much important to prevent clogging. Filtration unit is one of the main components in micro irrigation system that too, Primary filter is more important to be installed along with the unit, when the water source is from open reservoir and other water sources. Though it is essential, the primary filter is not being installed by the farmers due to its high cost. Hence this study is an attempt to fabricate low-cost filter and to evaluate its performance with different filter media layer. A low-cost primary filter for drip irrigation system is fabricated. Different filter media layer like silex sand (fine silex, coarse silex), pebbles with different sizes are selected. The results revealed that the removal efficiency of filter using silex sand and pebbles were 71% in terms of turbidity, 78% in terms of total suspended solids removal at flow rate of 12 m3 /hr. This fabricated low-cost filter will be cost effective for small farm applications.

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