Evaluating the soil evaporation loss rate in a gravel-sand mulching environment based on stable isotopes data

In order to cope with drought and water shortages,the working people in the arid areas of Northwest China have developed a drought-resistant planting method,namely,gravel-sand mulching,after long-term agricultural practices.To understand the effects of gravel-sand mulching on soil water evaporation,we selected Baifeng peach(Amygdalus persica L.)orchards in Northwest China as the experimental field in 2021.Based on continuously collected soil water stable isotopes data,we evaluated the soil evaporation loss rate in a gravel-sand mulching environment using the line-conditioned excess(lc-excess)coupled Rayleigh fractionation model and Craig-Gordon model.The results show that the average soil water content in the plots with gravel-sand mulching is 1.86%higher than that without gravel-sand mulching.The monthly variation of the soil water content is smaller in the plots with gravel-sand mulching than that without gravel-sand mulching.Moreover,the average lc-excess value in the plots without gravel-sand mulching is smaller.In addition,the soil evaporation loss rate in the plots with gravel-sand mulching is lower than that in the plots without gravel-sand mulching.The lc-excess value was negative for both the plots with and without gravel-sand mulching,and it has good correlation with relative humidity,average temperature,input water content,and soil water content.The effect of gravel-sand mulching on soil evaporation is most prominent in August.Compared with the evaporation data of similar environments in the literature,the lc-excess coupled Rayleigh fractionation model is better.Stable isotopes evidence shows that gravel-sand mulching can effectively reduce soil water evaporation,which provides a theoretical basis for agricultural water management and optimization of water-saving methods in arid areas.

Influence of Wind Deviation Angle on n-Hexane Evaporation Loss of Internal Floating-Roof Tanks

With the increasing attention to environmental protection,it is still necessary to strictly control the oil evaporation loss from the IFRT(internal floating-roof tank)to the atmosphere.Upon using n-hexane as a representative of light oil,the effects of the WDAs(wind deviation angles)on airflow distribution,the wind speed,the n-hexane vapor concentration,and the evaporation loss rate in the IFRT were investigated,and the mass transfer of the vapor-air was analyzed.The results are shown as follows:when the WDA is 0°,the vapor concentration in the gas space above the floating deck is the lowest;when the WDA is 22.5°,the oil evaporation loss rate is the largest;when the WDA is 45°,the vapor concentration is the highest,but the evaporation loss rate is the smallest.It is recommended to arrange the vent to the wind direction with an angle of 45°to reduce the evaporation loss and protect the atmospheric environment.

Estimation of evaporation losses based on stable isotopes of stream water in a mountain watershed

Water stable isotopes(δ^(2) H andδ^(18)O)can record surface water evaporation,which is an important hydrological process for understanding watershed structure and function evolution.However,the isotopic estimation of water evaporation losses in the mountain watersheds remains poorly explored,which hinders understanding spatial variations of hydrological processes and their relationships with the temperature and vegetation.Here we investigatedδ^(2) H,δ^(18)O,and d-excess values of stream water along an altitude gradient of 2130 to 3380 m in Guan’egou mountain watershed at the east edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China.The meanδ^(2) H(-69.6‰±2.6‰),δ^(18)O(-10.7‰±0.3‰),and dexcess values(16.0‰±1.4‰)of stream water indicate the inland moisture as the major source of precipitation in study area.Water stable isotopes increase linearly with decreasing altitudes,based on which we estimated the fractions of water evaporation losses along with the altitude and their variations in different vegetations.This study provides an isotopic evaluation method of water evaporation status in mountain watersheds,the results are useful for further understanding the relationship between hydrological processes and ecosystem function under the changing climate surrounding the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Metabolic rate and evaporative water loss in the silky starling （Sturnus sericeus）

To better understand the physiological characteristics of the silky starling（Sturnus sericeus）, its body temperature（Tb）, basal metabolic rate（BMR）, evaporative water loss（EWL） and thermal conductance（C） elicited by different ambient temperatures（Ta）（5-30 ℃） were determined in the present study. Our results showed that they have a high Tb（41.6±0.1 ℃）, a wide thermal neutral zone（TNZ）（20-27.5 ℃） and a relatively low BMR within the TNZ（3.37±0.17 mL O2/g·h）. The EWL was nearly stable below the TNZ（0.91±0.07 mg H2O/g·h） but increased remarkably within and above the TNZ. The C was constant below the TNZ, with a minimum value of 0.14±0.01 mL O2/g·h·℃. These findings indicate that the BMR, Tb and EWL of the silky starling were all affected by Ta, especially when Ta was below 20℃ and the EWL plays an important role in thermal regulation.

Water-saving Potential in aeolian sand soil under straight tube and surface drip irrigation in Taklimakan Desert in Northwest China

Evaporation loss from the saturated soil beneath drip irrigation emitters highly influences the irrigation efficiency of drip krigation （D1]. Subsurface drip irrigation （SDI） is one good approach to curb this inefficiency, but in a new irrigation method, straight tube irrigation （STI）, the irrigation tubes do not need to be buried and thus STI is recommended to increase the irrigation efficiency under normal surface-applied DI. STI consists of only connectors and water-transference tubes that can directly transfer irrigation water from the lateral emitters in the drip line to the root zone of plants. Five-month field experiments were carried out in aeolian sand soil in the forest-belts of the Taklimakan Desert, which have poor water storage capacity, to compare the potential water saving between STI and DI. The preliminary results showed that, compared with DI, STI （1） improved the soil water content in soil depths from 40 to 100 cm under the soil surface; （2） achieved the same irrigation effects in relatively shorter irrigation durations; （3） had very little water loss due to deep seepage; and （4） formed a layer of dry sand about 10 to 30 cm thick immediately below the soil surface, which lessened evaporation loss of soil water beneath the emitters on the soil surface. This demonstrates that STI can maximize the water-saving potential of DI through the reduction of wetted soil perimeters on the soil surface. This is valuable information for water-saving engineering applications and projects with STI in arid and semiarid regions.

Performance analysis of a floating photovoltaic covering system in an Indian reservoir

Floating photovoltaic(FPV)systems are one of the globally emerging technologies of renewable energy production that tend to balance the water-energy demand by effectively saving the evaporated water from reservoirs while generating electrical power.This study presents the performance analysis of a model FPV plant in an Indian reservoir.The Mettur dam reservoir located in Tamil Nadu,India with a hydroelectric power plant of 150-MW capacity is considered as a test case.The preliminary design of the FPV plant is proposed based on a detailed study of the key design elements and their suitability for Indian reservoirs.The proposed plant is numerically analysed for various tilt angles,mounting systems and tracking mechanisms in order to assess its potential power generation.A flat-mount system in landscape orientation was found to exhibit a high performance ratio.Further,a fixed-tilt FPV system with a panel slope of 10°and an FPV system with single-axis tracking were found to be suitable for the Mettur reservoir.Further,cost analysis of the FPV system is also presented along with the carbon-footprint estimation to establish the economic and environmental benefits of the system.The results show that the total potential CO_(2) saving by a FPV system with tracking is 135918.87 t CO_(2) and it is 12.5%higher than that of a fixed-mount FPV system.

A Review on Thermal Design of Liquid Droplet Radiator System

Liquid Droplet Radiator (LDR) system is regarded as a quite promising waste heat rejection system for aerospace engineering.A comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art of LDR system was carried out.The thermal design considerations of crucial components such as working fluid,droplet generator and collector,intermediate heat exchanger,circulating pump and return pipe were reviewed.The state-of-the-art of existing mathematical models of radiation and evaporation characteristics of droplet layer from literatures were summarized.Furthermore,thermal designs of three LDR systems were completed.The weight and required planform area between the rectangular and triangular LDR systems were respectively compared and the evaporation models for calculating the mass loss were evaluated.Based on the review,some prospective studies of LDR system were put forward in this paper.

A Novel Approach for Energy Efficiency Prediction of Various Natural Draft Wet Cooling Towers Using ANN

Cooling tower is crucial equipment in the cool-end system of power plant and the natural draft counter-flow wet cooling tower(NDWCT)gets wide application.The artificial neural network(ANN)technique is becoming an effective method for the thermal performance investigation of cooling towers.However,the neural network research on the energy efficiency performance of NDWCTs is not sufficient.In this paper,a novel approach was proposed to predict energy efficiency of various NDWCTs by using Back Propagation(BP)neural network:Firstly,based on 638 sets of field test data within 36 diverse NDWCTs in power plant,a three-layer BP neural network model with structure of 8-14-2 was developed.Then the cooling number and evaporation loss of water of different NDWCTs were predicted adopting the BP model.The results show that the established BP neural network has preferable prediction accuracy for the heat and mass transfer performance of NDWCT with various scales.The predicted cooling number and evaporative loss proportion of the testing cooling towers are in good agreement with experimental values with the mean relative error in the range of 2.11%–4.45%and 1.04%–4.52%,respectively.Furthermore,the energy efficiency of different NDWCTs can also be predicted by the proposed BP model with consideration of evaporation loss of water in cooling tower.At last,a novel method for energy efficiency prediction of various NDWCTs using the developed ANN model was proposed.The energy efficiency index(EEI)of different NDWCTs can be achieved readily without measuring the temperature as well as velocity of the outlet air.