A Review of REE Tracer Method Used in Soil Erosion Studies

Rare earth elements （REEs） have been proved ideal tracers for soil erosion and aggregation. REE tracer method （REETM） used to study soil erosion, as a new technique, has been developed in recent 20 yr. It is able to quantitatively monitor the temporal and spatial variation of erosion intensity, compared with traditional approaches. The applications of REETM in studying of sediment differentiation law, erosion process evolution, determination of sediment sources and sedimentation investigations, and determination of prediction parameters, were reviewed. Some application limitations were summarized.

Using REE Tracers to Measure Sheet Erosion Changing to Rill Erosion

Rare earth element(REE) tracer method was used to study sheet erosion changing to rill erosion on slope land. By placing different REE on different soil depth across a slope in an indoor plot, two simulated rainfalls were applied to study the change of erosion type and the rill erosion process. The results indicate that the main erosion type is sheet erosion at the beginning of the rainfalls, and serious erosion happens after rill erosion appears. Accumulated sheet and rill erosion amount increases with the rainfalls time. The percentage of sheet erosion amount decreases and rill erosion percentage increases with time. At the end of the rainfalls, the total rill erosion amounts are 4.3 and 5 times more than sheet erosion. In this paper, a new REE tracer method was used to quantitatively distinguish sheet and rill erosion amount. The new REE tracer method should be useful to future studying of erosion processes on slope lands.

First application of plutonium in soil erosion research on terraces

The spatial distributions of ^(239+240)Pu and ^(137)Cs in soils from Longji Rice Terraces were investigated to evaluate soil erosion.The activity concentrations of ^(239+240)Pu and ^(137)Cs in the surface soils of the paddy fields were in the range of 0.089–0.734 and1.80–7.88 mBq/g,respectively.The activities of ^(239+240)Pu and ^(137)Cs showed very similar distribution trends,first increasing and then decreasing with increasing elevation.The 240Pu/239Pu atom ratios in the surface soils ranged from 0.162 to 0.232.The activities of ^(239+240)Pu and ^(137)Cs in the soil cores tended to be uniformly distributed within the plowed layer and declined exponentially below this depth.The mean soil erosion rates of Longji Rice Terraces estimated by ^(239+240)Pu and ^(137)Cs tracer methods were 5.44 t/(ha·a)and 5.16 t/(ha·a),respectively,which demonstrated that plutonium can replace ^(137)Cs as an ideal tracer for soil erosion research in the future.Landform features are the main factors affecting the distribution of plutonium and ^(137)Cs as well as soil erosion in the Longji Rice Terraces.

Rill flow velocity affected by the subsurface water flow depth of purple soil in Southwest China

Subsurface water flow above the weakly permeable soil layer commonly occurs on purple soil slopes.However,it remains difficult to quantify the effect of subsurface water flow on the surface flow velocity.Laboratory experiments were performed to measure the rill flow velocity on purple soil slopes containing a subsurface water flow layer with the electrolyte tracer method considering 3 subsurface water flow depths(SWFDs:5,10,and 15 cm),3 flow rates(FRs:2,4,and 8 L min^(-1)),and 4 slope gradients(SGs:5°,10°,15°,and 20°).As a result,the pulse boundary model fit the electrolyte transport processes very well under the different SWFDs.The measured rill flow velocities were 0.202 to 0.610 m s^(-1) under the various SWFDs.Stepwise regression results indicated a positive dependence of the flow velocity on the FR and SG but a negative dependence on the SWFD.The SWFD had notable effects on the rill flow velocity.Decreasing the SWFD from 15 to 5 cm increased the flow velocity.Moreover,the flow velocities under the 10-and 15-cm SWFDs were 89%and 86%,respectively,of that under the 5-cm SWFD.The flow velocity under the 5-,10-and 15-cm SWFDs was decreased to 89%,80%,and 77%,respectively,of that on saturated soil slopes.The results will enhance the understanding of rill flow hydrological processes under SWFD impact.

Numerical study on mixing performance of screw elements in intermeshing counter-rotating and co-rotating twin-screw extrudes

The flow process of unplasticized polyvinyl chloride （U PVC） through the mixing zone of intermeshing counter rotating and co rotating twin screw extruders （TSEs） were numerically simula ted by the finite element method. Three dimensional isothermal flow field of U-PVC in two kinds of TSE was calculated. The mixing performance of the screw elements of the extruders was statistically analyzed by particle tracking method. The dispersive mixing performance was characterized by the mixing index, the logarithm of stretching, and the segregation scale. The distributive mixing per forulance was characterized by the resident time distribution. The results indicate that the counter rotating TSE can build higher pressure and generate higher axial velocity and shear rate, whereas the co rotating TSE has better performance in dispersive and distributive mixing.

Study on impact factors of tracer gas method in investigations of gaseous pollutant transport and building ventilation

Building ventilation is essential to discharge indoor pollutants and improve indoor air quality for occupant health.Tracer gas method is an efficient way in the field of building ventilation to measure ventilation rate and to evaluate the ventilation performance.Literature shows notable deviation of measured ventilation rate using different tracer gases.In the present study,CFD simulations are carried out to analyze He-,CO_(2)-and SF_(6)-based tracer gas methods.The effects of tracer gas density and release rate on the concentration distribution and ventilation effectiveness are studied.Various application scenarios of different ventilation rates and airflow distribution forms are compared.The results show that the deviation of ventilation effectiveness evaluated by different tracer gases can be above 2-4 times,and the error is introduced by non-passive dispersion.Whether tracer gas dispersion is passive or not depends on the relative importance of density difference driven mass transfer to forced convection mass transfer,which is due to the combined effects of density difference,release rate,and indoor airflow velocity,and can be judged by a dimensionless number θ.Under the geometry and ventilation settings in the present study,the critical value of θ is 1.0 for the error range of 5%,and 2.0 for the error range of 10%.When θ is below the critical value,the gas transport is passive and dominated by the indoor ventilation airflow.A release of tracer gas with smaller release rate and smaller density difference into a stronger indoor airflow behaves more passive.Heavier tracer gas tends to significantly overestimate the performance of upper supply and lower exhaust ventilation,and lighter tracer gas aggravates the overestimation of the performance for lower supply and upper exhaust ventilation.In mechanical ventilation rooms with air change rate of 3.0-6.0 h^(−1),a continuous release of tracer gas SF_(6),CO_(2) or He with release rate above 8 mg/s or source concentration above 8-75 ppm should not be considered as passive.This work clarified the passive and non-passive transport characteristics and mechanisms of various tracer gases,which is helpful for the engineering applications of tracer gas method in building ventilation studies.

Crack detection for wading-concrete structures using water irrigation and electric heating

Cracking in wading-concrete structures has a worse impact on structural safety compared with conventional concrete structures.The accurate and timely monitoring of crack development plays a significant role in the safety of wading-concrete engineering.The heat-transfer rate near a crack is related to the flow velocity of the fluid in the crack.Based on this,a novel crack-identification method for underwater concrete structures is presented.This method uses water irrigation to generate seepage at the interface of a crack;then,the heat-dissipation rate in the crack area will increase because of the convective heat-transfer effect near the crack.Crack information can be identified by monitoring the cooling law and leakage flow near cracks.The proposed mobile crack-monitoring system consists of a heating system,temperature-measurement system,and irrigation system.A series of tests was conducted on a reinforcedconcrete beam using this system.The crack-discrimination indexψwas defined,according to the subsection characteristics of the heat-source cooling curve.The effects of the crack width,leakage flow,and relative positions of the heat source and crack onψwere studied.The results showed that the distribution characteristics ofψalong the monitoring line could accurately locate the crack,but not quantify the crack width.However,the leakage flow is sensitive to the crack width and can be used to identify it.

A detailed reconstruction of changes in the factors and parameters of soil erosion over the past 250 years in the forest zone of European Russia(Moscow region)

Accelerated soil erosion is a major threat to soil,and there are great variations in the rate of soil erosion over time due to natural and human-induced factors.The temperate forest zone of Russia is character-ized by complex stages of land-use history(i.e.active urbanization,agricultural development,land abandonment,etc.).We have for the first time estimated the rates of soil erosion by the WaTEM/SEDEM model(rainfall erosion)and by a regional model(snowmelt erosion)over the past 250 years(from 1780 to 2019)for a 100-km2 study site in the Moscow region of Russia.The calculations were made on the basis of a detailed historical reconstruction of the following factors:the location of the arable land,crop rotation,the rain erosivity factor,and the maximum snow water equivalent.The area of arable land has decreased more than 3.5-fold over the past 250 years.At the end of the 20th century,the rates of gross erosion had declined more than 5.5-fold(from 28×10^(3) to 5×10^(3) t·ha^(-1)yr^(-1))in comparison with the end of the 18th century.Changes in the boundaries of arable land and also the relief features had led to a significant intra-slope accumulation of sediments.As a result of sediment redeposition within the arable land,the variation in net soil erosion was significantly lower than the variation in gross soil erosion.The changes in arable land area and in crop composition are the factors that have to the greatest extent determined the changes in soil erosion in this territory.