In aired and semiarid areas like Iraq, saline soil may be considered one of the major concerns. In addition to environmental effects, they may produce significant geotechnical hazards that could interrupt the structure stability depending on the salt type and its concentration. So, it is crucial to identify the degree of the soil salinity with a proper tool for getting a qualified assessment and consequently offering a suitable treatment. In this paper, the electrical resistivity technique has been employed to detect the degree of soil salinity by considering a new electronic system. The system used a single-phase Direct Current (DC) to Alternating Current (AC) inverter accompanied by a transformer. Natural soils became artificially saline after mixing with different brines including sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, and sodium silicate. Each salt was added to the pure water at low percentages varying from 0% to 10% and mixed with the dry soil. The mixture was compacted and transferred to a self-developed pre-calibrated cylindrical resistivity cell of four steel electrodes. Afterward, electrical resistivity measurements were taken using the electronic component and personal computer, and the corresponding results are discussed and analyzed. Results show that an electrical resistivity method is a good tool for detecting soil salinity, and the adopted electronic device for measuring soil resistivity differentiates the resistivity values such that the measurements are very sensitive to the salt type and concentration, and which was so pronounced when adding low percentages of salt.
Petroleum is one of the most important substances consumed by man at present times, a major energy source in this century, petroleum oils can cause environmental pollution during various stages of production, transportation, refining and use, petroleum hydrocarbons pollutions ranging from soil, ground water to marine environment, become an inevitable problem in the modern life, current study focused on bioremediation process of hydrocarbons contaminants that remaining in the bottom of gas cylinders and discharged to the soil. Twenty-four bacterial isolates were isolated from contaminated soils all of them gram negative bacteria, bacterial isolates screening to investigate the ability of biodegradation of hydrocarbons, these isolates
... Show MoreThis field experiment, was conducted to investigate a comparison of two methods for harvesting potatoes: mechanical and handy when using moldboard and chisel plow for primary tillage and three different distances for planting tubers in the rows 15, 25, and 35 cm in silt clay loam soil south of Baghdad. The factorial experiment followed a randomized complete block design with three replications using L.S.D. 5 % and 1 %. Mechanical harvest recorded the best valid potato tubers at 88.78 %, marketable yield of 31.74 ton. ha-1, efficiency lifted 95.68 %, tubers damage index 28.41, speeding up the harvesting process and reducing time and effort. Handy harvest gave the least damage to potato tubers, 6.02 %, and unlifted potato tubers, 4.32 %. Howe
... Show MoreUnsaturated soil can raise many geotechnical problems upon wetting and drying resulting in swelling upon wetting and collapsing (shrinkage) in drying and changing in the soil shear strength. The classical principles of saturated soil are often not suitable in explaining these phenomena. In this study, expansive soil (bentonite and sand) were tested in different water contents and dry unit weight chosen from the compaction curve to examine the effect of water content change on soil properties (swelling pressure, expansion index, shear strength (soil cohesion) and soil suction by the filter paper method). The physical properties of these soils were studied by conducting series of tests in laboratory. Fitting methods
... Show MoreThe main aim of this study was to molecular identification and determine the antagonistic impact of rhizosphere Trichoderma spp. against some phytopathogenic fungi, including (Magnaporthe grisea) pyricularia oryzae, Rhizoctonia solani and Macrophomina phasolina. Four Trichoderma isolates were isolated from rhizosphere soils of the different host plants in different locations of Egyptian governorates. The morphological characterization of isolated Trichoderma as well as using of (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) ribosomal gene sequence acquisition and data analyses. By comparing the results of DNA sequences of ITS region, the fungi represented one isolate were positively identified as T. asperellum (1 isolate T1) and one as T. longibrachiatum (1 isolate T2)
... Show MoreCommercial, industrial, and military activity, largely in the 19th and 20th centuries, have led to environmental pollution that can threaten human health and ecosystem function, liquid gas petroleum (LPG) products are the major sources of energy for industry and daily life that cause environmental contamination during various stages of production, transportation, refining and use. Screening of bacterial isolate by using clear zone techniques and biomass and optical density. Results revealed that isolate Burkholdaria cepatia showed a high ability for hydrocarbons biodegradation and this isolate identified depending on morphological cultural, gram stain, microscopic features, biochemical tests, and VITEK2 compact. In this study,
... Show MoreIn this study, the response and behavior of machine foundations resting on dry and saturated sand was investigated experimentally. In order to investigate the response of soil and footing to steady state dynamic loading, a physical model was manufactured to simulate steady state harmonic load at different operating frequencies. Total of 84 physical models were performed. The footing parameters are related to the size of the rectangular footing and depth of embedment. Two sizes of rectangular steel model footing were tested at the surface and at 50 mm depth below model surface. Meanwhile the investigated parameters of the soil condition include dry and saturated sand for two relative densities 30% and 80%. The response of the footing was ela
... Show MoreShallow foundations have been commonly used to transfer load to soil layer within the permissible limits of settlement based on the bearing capacity of the soil. For most practical cases, the shape of the shallow foundation is of slight significance. Also, friction resistance forces in the first layers of soils are negligible due to non-sufficient surrounding surface area and compaction conditions. However, the bearing capacity of a shallow foundation can be increased by several techniques. Geocell is one of the geosynthetic tool applied mainly to reinforce soil. This study presents a numerical approach of honeycombed geocell steel panels reinforcing the sandy soil under shallow foundation, and several parameters are investigated such as th
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is modeling the transport of industrial wastewater in sandy soil by using finite element method. A washing technique was used to remove the industrial wastewater from the soil. The washing technique applied with an efficient hydraulic gradient to help in transport of contaminant mass by advection. Also, the mass transport equation used in modeling the transport of industrial wastewater from soil includes the sorption and chemical reactions. The sandy soil samples obtained from Al-Najaf Governorate/Iraq. The wastewater contaminant was obtained from Al- Musyiebelectricity power plant. The soil samples were synthetically contaminated with four percentages of 10, 20, 30 and 40% of the contaminant and these percentages calc
... Show MoreBearing capacity of a concrete pile in fine grained cohesive soils is affected by the degree of saturation of the surrounding soil through the contribution of the matric suction. In addition, the embedded depth and the roughness of the concrete pile surface (expressed as British Pendulum Number BPN) also have their contribution to the shear strength of the concrete pile, consequently its bearing capacity. Herein, relationships among degree of saturation, pile depth, and surface roughness, were proposed as a mathematical model expressed as an equation where the shear strength of a pile can be predicted in terms of degree of saturation, depth, and BPN. Rel
... Show MoreThe dynamic response of foundation rest on collapsible soil in dry and soaked states is studied through wide experimental programmed. Gypseous soil from Tikrit governorate area was obtained and subjected to various physical and chemical analysis to determine its properties. Steel rectangular footing (400x200x20) mm is manufactured. The machine is fitted to the footing, then the model machine foundation is placed centrally over the prepared soil layer in steel container (1200x 1000x1000)mm with proper care to maintain the center of gravity of whole system lie in the same vertical line with container.Then, the footing is subjected to vertical harmonic loading using a rotating mass type mechanical oscillator to simulate different dynamic lo
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