Open AccessSynchrotron CMT-measured soil physical properties influenced by soil compaction
Author(s) -
Clark J. Gantzer,
S. Assouline,
Stephen H. Anderson
Publication year - 2006
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.32747/2006.7587242.bard
Subject(s) - tortuosity , porosity , materials science , synchrotron , mineralogy , compaction , characterisation of pore space in soil , image resolution , soil structure , soil science , composite material , geology , soil water , optics , physics
Methods to quantify soil conditions of pore connectivity, tortuosity, and pore size as altered by compaction were done. Air-dry soil cores were scanned at the GeoSoilEnviroCARS sector at the Advanced Photon Source for x-ray computed microtomography of the Argonne facility. Data was collected on the APS bending magnet Sector 13. Soil sample cores 5- by 5-mm were studied. Skeletonization algorithms in the 3DMA-Rock software of Lindquist et al. were used to extract pore structure. We have numerically investigated the spatial distribution for 6 geometrical characteristics of the pore structure of repacked Hamra soil from three-dimensional synchrotron computed microtomography (CMT) computed tomographic images. We analyzed images representing cores volumes 58.3 mm³ having average porosities of 0.44, 0.35, and 0.33. Cores were packed with < 2mm and < 0.5mm sieved soil. The core samples were imaged at 9.61-mm resolution. Spatial distributions for pore path length and coordination number, pore throat size and nodal pore volume obtained. The spatial distributions were computed using a three-dimensional medial axis analysis of the void space in the image. We used a newly developed aggressive throat computation to find throat and pore partitioning for needed for higher porosity media such as soil. Results show that the coordination number distribution measured from the medial axis were reasonably fit by an exponential relation P(C)=10⁻C/C0. Data for the characteristic area, were also reasonably well fit by the relation P(A)=10⁻ᴬ/ᴬ0. Results indicates that compression preferentially affects the largest pores, reducing them in size. When compaction reduced porosity from 44% to 33%, the average pore volume reduced by 30%, and the average pore-throat area reduced by 26%. Compaction increased the shortest paths interface tortuosity by about 2%. Soil structure alterations induced by compaction using quantitative morphology show that the resolution is sufficient to discriminate soil cores. This study shows that analysis of CMT can provide information to assist in assessment of soil management to ameliorate soil compaction.