Soil seed bank is affected by transferred soil thickness and properties in the reclaimed coal mine in the Qilian Mountains, China

Reclamation of lands abandoned after mining in mountain areas is critical to erosion control,safety from landslides,and ecological protection of mountain ecosystems.However,little is known about alpine coal mine reclamation using the soil seed bank as a potential source for revegetation.We collected samples of persistent soil seed bank for germination experiments from nine reclaimed sites with different soil cover thicknesses and from six control sites in the Qilian Mountains of China.Soil properties of each site were determined(including soil water content,soil available potassium,soil available phosphorus,soil total nitrogen,pH,soil organic matter,soil total phosphorus,and soil total potassium,and soil alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen),and the relationships of the characteristics of the soil seed bank with soil cover thickness and soil properties were examined.The results showed that the density,number of species,and diversity of the topsoil seed bank were significantly correlated with soil cover thickness,and all increased with the increment of soil cover thickness.Soil cover thickness controlled the soil seed bank by influencing soil properties.With the increase in soil cover thickness,soil properties(e.g.,soil organic matter,soil total nitrogen,etc.)content increased while soil pH decreased.The soil seed bank had the potential to restored the pre-mining habitat at reclaimed sites with approximately 20-cm soil cover thickness.Soil properties of reclaimed sites were lower than that of natural sites.The relationship between the soil seed bank and soil cover thickness determined in this study provides a foundation for improving reclamation measures used in coal mines,as well as for the management and monitoring of reclaimed areas.

Improved Mechanical Properties of Textile Reinforced Concrete Thin Plate

Textile reinforced concrete （TRC） is especially suitable for the thin-walled and light-weight structural elements with a high load-bearing capacity. For this thin element, the concrete cover thickness is an important factor in affecting the mechanical and anti-crack performance. Therefore, the influences of the surface treatment of the textile and mixing polypropylene fiber into the concrete on the properties of the components with different cover thickness were experimentally studied with four-point bending tests. The experimental results show that for the components with the same cover thickness, sticking sand on epoxy resin-impregnated textile and adding short fiber into the concrete are helpful to improve their mechanical performance. The 2-3 mm cover thickness is enough to meet the anchorage requirements of the reinforcement fiber and the component has good crack pattern and mechanical behavior at this condition. Comparison between the calculated and the experimental Values of flexural capacity reveals satisfactory agreement. Finally, based on the calculation model of the crack spacing of reinforced concrete structures, the crack extension of this thin-wall component was qualitatively analyzed and the same results with the experimental were obtained.

Prediction of the Residual Strength for Durability Failure of Concrete Structure in Acidic Environments

According to the results of accelerated tests of acidification corrosion depth and compressive strength of concretes subjected to sulfuric acid environments,the acidification depth laws of concretes were predicted based on the grey system theory.Thus,the remaining compressive strength was calculated when the acidification depth reached the protection layer thickness of concrete structures,which indicates that the limit state of durability failure can be defined based on strength degradation,and the calculation process was illustrated by an example.The calculated results show that the remaining compressive strength values in the durability failure limit state for the concrete structures exposed to p H=2 and 3 sulfuric acid water environments and wet-dry cyclic sulfuric acid environment with p H=2 are 74%,72%,and 80% of initialstrength,respectively.The method provides references for the durability evaluation of concrete structure design under the acidic environments.

Study of Different Parameters Affecting the Productivity of Solar Still for Seawater Desalination under Djiboutian Climate

Experimental studies were carried out to determine the influence of solar radiation, temperatures variations, basin water amount, wind speed, glass cover thickness and salinity on the daily production of the distillate output using solar desalination process, namely single slope solar still to produce fresh water from seawater in the context of Djibouti. The temperatures variations increase in relation to solar radiation. Consequently the hourly distillate output increases and reaches a maximum around noon when the solar still receives maximum intensity of solar radiation. An inverse relation is found between glass cover thickness, basin water amount and distillate output production. The variation wind speed has an effect on the daily production;which increases in relation to wind speed. In order to assess the effect of salinity on the daily production, the solar still is provided with brackish water to compare the daily production obtained from seawater. Experimental results show that the cumulative productivity decreases when there is an increase of salinity. In addition, the quality of the distillate output was tested by measuring TDS, EC, pH, hardness water and chlorides and was compared to WHO standards. The values obtained for these parameters were in accordance with the requirements of WHO and good removal efficiency for four parameters.