Estimating distribution of water uptake with depth of winter wheat by hydrogen and oxygen stable isotopes under different irrigation depths

Crop root system plays an important role in the water cycle of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. In this study, com- bined isotope techniques, root length density and root cell activity analysis were used to investigate the root water uptake mechanisms of winter wheat （Triticum aesfivum L.） under different irrigation depths in the North China Plain. Both direct inference approach and multisource linear mixing model were applied to estimate the distribution of water uptake with depth in six growing stages. Results showed that winter wheat under land surface irrigation treatment （Ts） mainly absorbed water from 10-20 cm soil layers in the wintering and green stages （66.9 and 72.0%, respectively）; 0-20 cm （57.0%） in the jointing stage; 0-40 （15.3%） and 80-180 cm （58.1%） in the heading stage; 60-80 （13.2%） and 180-220 cm （35.5%） in the filling stage; and 0-40 （46.8%） and 80-100 cm （31.0%） in the ripening stage. Winter wheat under whole soil layers irrigation treatment （Tw） absorbed more water from deep soil layer than Ts in heading, filling and ripening stages. Moreover, root cell activity and root length density of winter wheat under TW were significantly greater than that of Ts in the three stages. We concluded that distribution of water uptake with depth was affected by the availability of water sources, the root length density and root cell activity. Implementation of the whole soil layers irrigation method can affect root system distribution and thereby increase water use from deeper soil and enhance water use efficiency.

3-D numerical investigation of the wall-bounded concentric annulus flow around a cylindrical body with a special array of cylinders

Concentric annulus flow around a combinational cylindrical body with a special array of cylinders at five high Reynolds numbers is investigated numerically using Fluent 6.3.26 in this paper. The numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental data in regard to the axial velocity of the flow. This study focuses on the flow structure and the hydrodynamic characteristics based on the velocity distribution, the pressure distribution, streamlines and vectors under I-D, 2-D and 3-D condi- tions. Meanwhile, some global parameters including the pressure coefficient, the drag coefficient and the lift coefficient are analyzed. Numerical results show that the high velocity region and the reverse wake zone with low velocity exist in some spaces due to the disturbance of the cylindrical body. Negative pressures appear in some regions. Neither a wide area vortex nor the vortex shedding appears in the wall-bounded domain. The drag along the axial direction is the main force acting on the cylindrical body in the pipe domain. The annulus flow around the cylindrical body is analyzed to reveal the hydrodynamic characteristics of the complex turbule- nt concentric annulus flow field due to the multi-effects in the pipeline.

Numerical investigation of the concentric annulus flow around a cylindrical body with contrasted effecting factors

This paper studies the wall-bounded flow around a cylindrical at a high Reynolds numbers body in a determined computational domain, with simulations of the 3-D, turbulent concentric annulus flow in a straight pipe. Numerical results show that a reversing zone, appearing as a tongue zone with nested velocities higher than the surrounding area, exists behind the cylindrical body. The annulus space is a region of high velocity and low pressure. The zero velocity, of combined the X- velocity and the Y- velocity, exists in the cross sections and no vortex shedding is formed behind the attaching cylinders. Among all investigated effecting factors, the diameters of the attaching and the main cylinders affect the wake feature behind the cylindrical body while the main cylinder length does not affect the distribution tendency of the flow field. The diameters of the main cylinder and the pipe affect the pressure values and the distribution tendencies on the main cylinder surface. Obviously, the increase of the pipe diameter reduces the drag coefficient of the cylindrical body and the increase of the diameter of the main cylinder increases the drag coefficient greatly. The numerical investigation of the concentric annulus flow provides foundations for further improvements of the intricate flow studies.

Effective root depth and water uptake ability of winter wheat by using water stable isotopes in the Loess Plateau of China

A field experiment using PVC growth tubes was conducted in the Loess Plateau of China to determine the effective root depth(ERD)of winter wheat and its relationship with root distributions and soil water conditions.The water stable isotopes technique was used to estimate the water uptake contributions of different root depths during the growth stages.On the basis of IsoSource and the Romero-Saltos model,the ERD was 0-40 cm in the majority of the growth stage.However,in the heading and filling stages,the ERD could reach 60%-75%of the maximum root depth.Furthermore,the contributions to water uptake of different root depths were correlated with variations in soil water and root length density(r=0.395 and 0.368,respectively;p<0.05).However,by path analysis,the low decisive coefficient indicated that root distribution and soil water content did not always follow the same trend as water uptake.The conclusions of this study can help with understanding winter wheat water uptake mechanisms in arid and semi-arid regions and increasing water use efficiency.