Effects of Combined Application of Water Retaining Agents and Organic Materials on Water Holding Characteristics of Yellow Brown Soils in Hilly Areas

[Objective] The aim was to reduce fertilizer and water losses caused by surface runoffs in rainy season and provide scientific references for soil moisture in arid season. [Method] The application proportion of complex water-holding organic materials was determined by multi-factor mixture experiment and the curve changes of soil moisture characters were tested to analyze water-holding capacity and water availability of soils. [Result] The initial moisture content of soil with different mixture proportions improved in varying degrees. For example, when water-retention agents reached 0.4% and 0.6% of soil weight, soil moisture contents were 69.0% and70.5%, respectively, which showed significant differences with the control（S0.0）. Soil dehydration terms in different treatments all extended, prolonging in the range of4.6-14 d. [Conclusion] The applications of water-retention agent and organic material would improve water-holding capacity of hills and low mountains, and initial moisture content and dehydration cycle tend to be volatile upon mixture proportion. Therefore,it is necessary to adjust soil fertility, crop species, and irrigation to meet crop demands on fertilizer and water.

Potential Role of Feldspathic Sandstone as a Natural Water Retaining Agent in Mu Us Sandy Land,Northwest China

This paper analyzed the water-retention mechanism of feldspathic sandstone （fine-（〈 1 mm diam.） and gravel-sized （2-3 cm diam.） in Mu Us Sandy Land, Northwest China. The objective of this study is to study the effect of feldspathic sandstone amendment on water retention in sandy land. The results showed that as the proportion of fine feldspathic sandstone in the sandy land soil increased, the soil texture changed from sand to silt loam, the capillary po- rosity gradually increased from 26.3% to 44.9%, and the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity decreased from 7.10 ram/rain to 0.07 mm/min. Feldspathic sandstone gravel formed micro-reservoirs in the sandy land soil, playing the role of a ＇water absorbent＇ and ＇water retaining agent＇ in sandy land. Amendment with feldspathic sandstone can increase water retention in the arable layer of sandy land by 67%. This study provides a theoretical basis for the amelioration of sandy land on a large scale. It can be concluded that amendment with feldspathic sandstone can improve the physical properties of sandy land soil and increase soil water retention.

The Economics of Competing Water Uses under a FERC Licensing Agreement: Estimation of Property Value, Recreation, and Hydroelectric Impacts

Reservoirs provide a variety of services with economic values across multiple sectors. As demands for reservoir services continue to grow and precipitation patterns evolve, it becomes ever more important to consider the integrated suite of values and tradeoffs that attend changes in water uses and availability. Section 316 (b) of the Clean Water Act requires that owners of certain water cooled power plants evaluate technologies and operational measures that can reduce their impacts to aquatic organisms. The studies must discuss the social costs and benefits of alternative technologies including cooling towers (79 Fed. Reg. 158, 48300 - 48439). Cooling towers achieve their effect through evaporation. This manuscript estimates the property value, recreation, and hydroelectric generation impacts that could result from the evaporative water loss associated with installing cooling towers at the McGuire Nuclear Generating Station (McGuire) located on Lake Norman, North Carolina. Although this study specifically evaluates the effects of evaporative water loss from cooling towers, its methods are applicable to estimating the economic benefits and costs of a new water user or reduced water input in any complex reservoir system that supports steam electric generation, hydroelectric generation, residential properties, recreation, irrigation, and municipal water use.

Mechanical Behaviors and Deformation Properties of Retaining Wall Formed by Grouting Mould-Bag Pile

The simplified mechanical model and finite element model are established on the basis of the measured results and analysis of the grouting pile deformation monitoring,surface horizontal displacement and vertical displacement monitoring,deep horizontal displacement(inclinometer)monitoring,soil pressure monitoring and seepage pressure monitoring in the lower reaches of Wuan River regulation project in Shishi,Fujian Province.The mechanical behavior and deformation performance of mould-bag pile retaining wall formed after controlled cement grouting in the silty stratum of the test section are analyzed and compared.The results show that the use of controlled cement grouting mould-bag pile technology is to strengthen the soft stratum for sealing water and reinforcement,so that it can rock into a retaining wall,which can both retain soil and seal water with excellent effect.The control of cement grouting technology not only makes the soft soil rock in the range of retaining wall of mould-bag pile,but also makes a wide range of soil around the mould-bag pile squeeze and embed to compaction;and its cohesion and internal friction angle increased,so as to achieve the purpose of reducing soil pressure and improving mechanical and deformation properties of retaining wall.

Effects of Water-Collecting and -Retaining Techniques on Photosynthetic Rates, Yield, and Water Use Efficiency of Millet Grown in a Semiarid Region

Field experiments were conducted in 2003 and 2004 to study the effects of plastic ridges and furrow film mulching （plastic film on sowing, as well as plastic film on flat soil and hole sowing） and chemicals （a drought resistant agent and a water- retaining agent） on growth, photosynthetic rate, yield, and water use efficiency （WUE） of spring millet （Setaria italica L.）. The experimental results showed that water-collecting and -retaining techniques can effectively increase soil moisture content, the leaf photosynthetic rate and crop growth. Due to increased soil moisture under the plastic-covered ridge and furrow water-collecting in July and August, dry matter and plant height had a increase at the booting stage （late growth advantage）. However, the plastic-covered flat soil and hole sowing reduced soil evaporation during early growth, the increase of dry matter and plant height appeared at the seedling stage （early growth advantage）. Plastic-covered ridge and furrow sowing supplemented with chemical reagents had significant positive effects on water collection and soil moisture retention. Improvement of soil moisture resulted into the increase of the photosynthetic rate, dry matter accumulation yield and WUE. The water-collecting and -retaining techniques can improve WUE and enhance crop yield. Correlation analysis demonstrated that the photosynthetic rate under the water-collecting and -retaining techniques was significantly associated with the soil moisture, but had no significant relationship with leaf chlorophyll content. Plastic- covered ridge and furrow sowing supplemented with chemical reagents increased the yield and WUE by 114% and 8.16 kg ha-1 mm-1, respectively, compared with the control; while without the chemical reagents the yield and WUE were 95% and 7.42 kg ha-1 mm-1 higher, respectively, than those of the control.

Effects of Nano-carbon Humic Acid Water-retaining Fertilizer on Citrus Growth and the Soil Bacterial Community in Citrus Field

[Objective] In order to reveal the effects of reducing the amount of novel nano-carbon humic acid water-retaining fertilizer(CSF) on soil microbial community structure and citrus growth. [Method]In this study,conventional fertilization was as the control(KC1) in Wanzhou citrus orchard of Three Gorges Reservoir area. CSF reductions by 0%(KC2),10%(KC3),20%(KC4),30%(KC5) and 40%(KC6) were used to analyze the changes of soil bacterial community structure,citrus yield and quality. [Result]The results showed that the observed species,Shannon index,Chao1 index and PDwholetree of KC6 were higher than those of KC1,and were the same as KC2. The abundance of Xanthomonadaceae was the highest in KC5. Compared with KC1,the Xanthomonadaceae in KC3,KC4 and KC6 was significantly decreased,and the levels of Nitrosomonadaceae and Pseudomonasaceae were higher than that of KC1 after the treatment of KC6. Sphingomonas in different reduction treatments was lower than that of KC1,but Burkholderia and Pseudomonas were significantly higher than those of KC1. It was found that the similarity among treatments was small after bacterial community similarity clustering analysis,and citrus yield increased somewhat after CSF fertilization reduction.When CSF fertilization reduced by 30%,citrus yield increased by 4. 50%. When CSF fertilization reduced by 40%,citrus yield decreased by4. 14%. After CSF fertilization,citrus quality did not change significantly in CSF conventional fertilization and reduction of 10% and 40%,while significantly decreased in 20% and 30% of fertilization reduction. [Conclusion] CSF fertilization reduction changed the diversity of soil bacterial community structure and the yield and quality of citrus.

Research on the mechanical properties of the reinforced materials of retaining wall

The main research purpose of this paper is to study the mechanical properties of the sand gravel packing of the retaining wall under the creep condition of reinforced materials, in order to figure it out, Indoor physical experiments were carried out.

Ice-and cryogel-soil composites in water-retaining elements in embankment dams constructed in cold regions

There are a number of serious problems connected with building and repairing water-reining elements in embankment dams in cold regions. One of them is the difficulty in finding inexpensive clay materials with the necessary structural properties and using them in the winter. Another is the cracks that appear in the upper part of a dam when the core freezes to the banks, and leakage along the cracks threatens to desWoy the dam. Still another is the process of erosion at the bottom of the core which may occur through fissures in the rock foundation of a dam and in transport constructions. Also, the behaviour of water-retaining elements during eazthquakes is unreliable. All of these problems can be solved by using iceand cryogel-soil composites created by cryotropic gel formation （CGF）. Our laboratory investigations demonstrate that the materials proposed for water-retaining elements have the necessary permeable, plastic, thermophysical, and slrength properties to solve all of these problems. Certain consmactious of water-retaining elements which may prove to be both safe and cost-effective are proposed. However, these iceand cryogel-soil composites need to be field-validated before they are used in dams and transport structures in cold regions.

Effects of Nano-Carbon Water-Retaining Fertilizer on Yield and Nitrogen and Phosphorus Utilization Efficiency of Tuber Mustard

The effects of nano-carbon water-retaining fertilizer on yield,quality of tuber mustard,and fertilizer utilization efficiency were studied with the field experiments compared to the local tuber mustard fertilizer with equal amount of effective composition. The results showed that the yield of tuber mustard was 50 670-56 496 kg/ha in treatments of nano-carbon water-retaining fertilizer decreasing by 10%-40%,and compared with local tuber mustard fertilizer,the average yield was increased by 94. 8%. The yield increasing rate of tuber mustard was 93. 0%in treatment of nano-carbon water-retaining fertilizer decreasing by 30%. The average fertilizer utilization efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus was 54% and 39. 7%,respectively,the average increment of fertilizer utilization efficiency was 36% and 37%,respectively compared with local tuber mustard fertilizer. Especially in treatment of reducing nano-carbon water-retaining fertilizer by 30%,the nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer utilization efficiency was increased by 64% and 56%,respectively. By comprehensive comparison,it was found that nano-carbon waterretaining fertilizer and the treatment of 30% reduction could significantly improve the yield of tuber mustard and fertilizer utilization efficiency,and have popularization and application value in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

An Overview of Recently Developed Coupled Simulation Optimization Approaches for Reliability Based Minimum Cost Design of Water Retaining Structures

This paper reviews several recently-developed techniques for the minimum-cost optimal design of water-retaining structures (WRSs), which integrate the effects of seepage. These include the incorporation of uncertainty in heterogeneous soil parameter estimates and quantification of reliability. This review is limited to methods based on coupled simulation-optimization (S-O) models. In this context, the design of WRSs is mainly affected by hydraulic design variables such as seepage quantities, which are difficult to determine from closed-form solutions or approximation theories. An S-O model is built by integrating numerical seepage modeling responses to an optimization algorithm based on efficient surrogate models. The surrogate models (meta-models) are trained on simulated data obtained from finite element numerical code solutions. The proposed methodology is applied using several machine learning techniques and optimization solvers to optimize the design of WRS by incorporating different design variables and boundary conditions. Additionally, the effects of several scenarios of flow domain hydraulic conductivity are integrated into the S-O model. Also, reliability based optimum design concepts are incorporated in the S-O model to quantify uncertainty in seepage quantities due to uncertainty in hydraulic conductivity estimates. We can conclude that the S-O model can efficiently optimize WRS designs. The ANN, SVM, and GPR machine learning technique-based surrogate models are efficiently and expeditiously incorporated into the S-O models to imitate the numerical responses of simulations of various problems.

Viscoelasto-plastic properties of deep hard rocks under water environment

Using a circular incremental step load and unload method, a set of rheological experiments were performed to study the viscoelasto-plastic properties of amphibolite in Jinchuan No.2 diggings under different environments. Based on the scientific analysis on rheological experimental data, the viscoelasto-plastic properties of amphibolite under different environments were studied. The results show that the instantaneous elastic modulus and viscoplastic properties of amphibolite are affected little, the viscoelastic properties of amphibolite are significantly affected. Based on the experimental results and characteristics of recovered rock specimen, a generalized Kelvin model was chosen to simulate rheological properties of amphibolites and key parameters were obtained. It is found that the creep deformation modulus E1 is significantly influenced by the water, while the instant elastic modulus E2 is not significantly affected. The discreteness of the viscosity coefficient η is large, the influence of water on η is not clear and needs to be further studied.

Effect of Water Control before Transplanting and Rooting Powder Treatment on Tobacco Seedling Quality and Physiological Properties at Green Stage

Cultivating strong seedlings is an important guarantee for the production of high-quality flue-cured tobacco, while there are many disadvantages in tobacco floating system that is commonly adopted in China. To improve the tobacco floating system, with Xiangyan No.3 as experimental material, the effects of water control before transplanting and rooting powder treatment on tobacco seedling quality and physiological properties at green stage were investigated. The results showed that： （1） water control showed small influence on tobacco seedling quality, while rooting powder treatment and water control ＋ rooting powder treatment showed great influence on tobacco seedling quality, mainly represented by reduced plant height, thickened stem and increased dry matter accumulative amount; （2） water control before transplanting and rooting powder treatment all improved leaf chlorophyll content and root vigor of tobacco seedlings, and the effect of water control ＋ rooting powder treatment was best, followed by rooting powder treatment and water control; （3） all treatments increased the nitrate reductase and invertase activity, and reduced the MDA content of tobacco seedlings, and the effect of water control ＋ rooting powder treatment was best, followed by rooting powder treatment and water control. Mean- while, the treatment effect 10 d before the transplanting was better than that 5 d before the transplanting. In overall, the improvement effects of water control 10 d before transplanting ＋ rooting powder treatment on tobacco seedling quality and physiological properties at green stage were the best.

Influences of water treatment agents on oil-water interfacial properties of oilfield produced water

The emulsion stability of oilfield produced water is related to the oil-water interfacial film strength and the zeta potential of the oil droplets. We investigated the effects of water treatment agents （corrosion inhibitor SL-2, scale inhibitor HEDP, germicide 1227, and flocculant polyaluminium chloride PAC） on the stability of oilfield produced water. The influence of these treatment agents on oil-water interfacial properties and the mechanism of these agents acting on the oilfield produced water were studied by measuring the interfacial shear viscosity, interfacial tension and zeta electric potential. The results indicated that the scale inhibitor HEDP could increase the oil-water interfacial film strength, and it could also increase the absolute value of the zeta potential of oil droplets. HEDP played an important role in the stability of the emulsion. Polyaluminum chloride （PAC） reduced the stability of the emulsion by considerably decreasing the absolute value of the zeta potential of oil droplets. Corrosion inhibitor SL-2 and germicide 1227 could decrease the oil-water interfacial tension, whereas they had little influence on oil-water interfacial shear viscosity and oil-water interfacial electricity properties.

Effects of water intrusion and loading rate on mechanical properties of and crack propagation in coal–rock combinations

Tackling the problems of underground water storage in collieries in arid regions requires knowledge of the effect of water intrusion and loading rate on the mechanical properties of and crack development in coal–rock combinations. Fifty-four coal–rock combinations were prepared and split equally into groups containing different moisture contents(dry, natural moisture and saturated) to conduct acoustic emission testing under uniaxial compression with loading rates ranging from 0.1 mm/min to 0.6 mm/min. The results show that the peak stress and strength-softening modulus, elastic modulus, strain-softening modulus, and post-peak modulus partly decrease with increasing moisture content and loading rate. In contrast, peak strain increases with increasing moisture content and fluctuates with rising loading rate. More significantly, the relationship between stiffness and stress, combined with accumulated counts of acoustic emission, can be used to precisely predict all phases of crack propagation. This is helpful in studying the impact of moisture content and loading rate on crack propagation and accurately calculating mechanical properties. We also determined that the stress thresholds of crack closure, crack initiation, and crack damage do not vary with changes of moisture content and loading rate, constituting 15.22%, 32.20%, and 80.98% of peak stress, respectively. These outcomes assist in developing approaches to water storage in coal mines, determining the necessary width of waterproof coal–rock pillars, and methods of supporting water-enriched roadways, while also advances understanding the mechanical properties of coal–rock combinations and laws of crack propagation.

Effects of reclaimed water irrigation and nitrogen fertilization on the chemical properties and microbial community of soil

The ecological effect of reclaimed water irrigation and fertilizer application on the soil environment is receiving more attention.Soil microbial activity and nitrogen（N）levels are important indicators of the effect of reclaimed water irrigation on environment.This study evaluated soil physicochemical properties and microbial community structure in soils irrigated with reclaimed water and receiving varied amounts of N fertilizer.The results indicated that the reclaimed water irrigation increased soil electrical conductivity（EC）and soil water content（SWC）.The N treatment has highly significant effect on the ACE,Chao,Shannon（H）and Coverage indices.Based on a 16S ribosomal RNA（16S rRNA）sequence analysis,the Proteobacteria,Gemmatimonadetes and Bacteroidetes were more abundant in soil irrigated with reclaimed water than in soil irrigated with clean water.Stronger clustering of microbial communities using either clean or reclaimed water for irrigation indicated that the type of irrigation water may have a greater influence on the structure of soil microbial community than N fertilizer treatment.Based on a canonical correspondence analysis（CCA）between the species of soil microbes and the chemical properties of the soil,which indicated that nitrate N（NO3-–-N）and total phosphorus（TP）had significant impact on abundance of Verrucomicrobia and Gemmatimonadetes,meanwhile the p H and organic matter（OM）had impact on abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria significantly.It was beneficial to the improvement of soil bacterial activity and fertility under 120 mg kg^-1 N with reclaimed water irrigation.

Effect of lower bainite/martensite/retained austenite triplex microstructure on the mechanical properties of a low-carbon steel with quenching and partitioning process

We present a study concerning Fe-0. 176C-1.31Si-1.58Mn-0.26Al-0.3Cr （wt%） steel subjected to a quenching and partitioning （Q＆P） process. The results of scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and tensile tests demon- strate that the microstructures primarily consist of lath martensite, retained austenite, lower bainite （LB）, and a small amount of tempered martensite; moreover, few twin austenite grains were observed. In the microstrucmre, three types of retained austenite with different sizes and morphologies were observed： blocky retained austenite （-300 nm in width）, film-like retained austenite （80-120 nm in width）, and ul- tra-fine film-like retained austenite （30-40 nm in width）. Because of the effect of the retained austenite/martensite/LB triplex microstructure, the specimens prepared using different quenching temperatures exhibit high ultimate tensile strength and yield strength. Furthermore, the strength effect of LB can partially counteract the decreasing strength effect of martensite. The formation of LB substantially reduces the amount of retained austenite. Analyses of the retained austenite and the amount of blocky retained austenite indicated that the carbon content is critical to the total elongation of Q＆P steel.

INFLUENCE OF SILOXANE CO-SEGMENT LENGTH AND CONTENT OF WATERBORNE POLYSILOXANE-URETHANE COPOLYMERS ON THEIR WATER RESISTANCE,THERMAL STABILITY AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

A series of stable waterborne polysiloxaneurethane （WPSUR） dispersions were prepared using amino-terminated polydimethylsiloxane （NS）, dimethylolpropionic acid （DMPA）, castor oil, polypropylene glycol and toluene diisocyanate. Meanwhile, NS with different molecular weights was synthesized and used as the soft co-segment. Effects of types and contents of soft co-segments as well as chain extenders on the thermal degradation and stability for WPSUR films were examined. Results reveal that WPSUR films exhibit excellent water resistance and mechanical properties as compared with pure polyurethane （PU） films, and the NS soft co-segment possesses a remarkable effect on the second stage （stage Ⅱ）, while the content of the hard segment is propitious to the initial stage （stage Ⅰ）. Moreover, the highest temperature of stage Ⅱ （T2m） for WPSUR films using NS as soft co-segment is 413℃, approximately being 30℃ higher than that of those typical PUs using HDA and APDMS as the chain extenders, respectively.

Safe retaining pressures for pressurized tunnel face using nonlinear failure criterion and reliability theory

Based on the active failure mechanism and passive failure mechanism for a pressurized tunnel face, the analytical solutions of the minimum collapse pressure and maximum blowout pressure that could maintain the stability of pressurized tunnel faces were deduced using limit analysis in conjunction with nonlinear failure criterion under the condition of pore water pressure. Due to the objective existence of the parameter randomness of soil, the statistical properties of random variables were determined by the maximum entropy principle, and the Monte Carlo method was employed to calculate the failure probability of a pressurized tunnel. The results show that the randomness of soil parameters exerts great influence on the stability of a pressurized tunnel, which indicates that the research should be done on the topic of determination of statistical distribution for geotechnical parameters and the level of variability. For the failure probability of a pressurized tunnel under multiple failure modes, the corresponding safe retaining pressures and optimal range of safe retaining pressures are calculated by introducing allowable failure probability and minimum allowable failure probability. The results can provide practical use in the pressurized tunnel engineering.

Effect of Hydration Aging and Water Binder Ratio on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Sprayed Concrete

In order to study the durability of sprayed concrete （shotcrete）, effects of different hydration aging and water-binder ratio （w/b） on the microstructure of cement paste and basic mechanical properties of test specimens were investigated. The phase composition, mass percentage of ettringite and portland in hydration production and microstructure were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, thermo gravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry （TG-DSC） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, respectively. The experimental results showed that changes in phase composition was more significant than those of water-binder ratio. With hydration aging and water-binder ratio increased, the mass percentage of ettringite and portland was decreased from 4.42%, 1.49% to 3.31%, 1.35%, respectively and the microstructure of paste was significantly compacted. Likewise, the mechanical properties including cubic compressive strength and splitting tensile strength were rised obviously.