Premium
Nondestructively Quantifying Macropore Volume with Shear‐Thinning Fluid
Author(s) -
John Doe
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
csa news
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2325-3584
pISSN - 1529-9163
DOI - 10.2134/csa2014-59-5-2
Subject(s) - thinning , citation , volume (thermodynamics) , macropore , shear thinning , shear (geology) , computer science , world wide web , materials science , geography , composite material , physics , chemistry , forestry , thermodynamics , rheology , mesoporous material , biochemistry , catalysis
oil cracks, burrow holes, and root channels form complex networks that can control hydrological processes including infiltration, overland flow, and the rapid movement of pollutants and nutrients into and across landscapes. They allow water and its solutes to bypass the fine soil pores within the soil matrix, thus flowing faster through larger channels technically referred to as preferential flow pathways. Understanding the contribution and quantifying the role of preferential pathways on flow in porous media is necessary to predict water and chemical movement and requires accurate estimation of their volume and connectivity. Current field methods of volume estimation employ (1) basic measurement tools and simple geometric shape assumptions to account for the complex geometries of those networks and are thus very crude measures; or (2) hardening compounds injected into macropores followed by recovery of the casting of the cracks, a process that is destructive to the soil of interest.