Using pottery clay, porous ceramic stones were molded and then decorated with copper sub-microparticles inside the pores. Copper added antimicrobial functionality to the clay-based ceramic and showed ability in disinfecting water. Populations of both Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae in contaminated water were reduced by >99.9% in 3 h when exposed to an antimicrobial stone. This a...

The aim of the thesis is to develop a numerical model based on first principles for the simulation of change of size of soil pores during drying of soft soil. This model is suitable for the type of soil consisting of clay with layered structure, such as Montmorillonite. In this study, the geometry of the soil pore is idealized by a triangle consisting of three sand grains and clay fabrics conne...

Soil activity is a term generally applied to the ability of a soil to take in and dispose water under changing moisture conditions. It is due to presence of clay minerals with a net negative charge to neutralise which, water is attracted to the mineral surface. The water molecules are incorporated in the clay structure in between the clay plates and with increased water; both the exchangeable c...

Composites based on high density polyethylene (HDPE), pine flour, and organic clay were made by melt compounding and then injection molding. The influence of clay on crystallization behavior, mechanical properties, water absorption, and thermal stability of HDPE/pine composites were investigated. The HDPE/pine composites containing exfoliated clay were made by a two-step melt compounding proced...

introduction: maintaining soil moisture content at about field capacity and reducing water loss in near root zone plays a key role for developing soil and water management programs. clay pot or porous pipe is a traditional sub-irrigation method and is ideal for many farms in the world’s dry land with small and medium sized farms and gardens and is still used limitedly in dry lands of india, ira...

The effects of glycerol and sorbitol as two plasticizers on mechanical properties, water vapor permeability, thermal properties, color and capability of heat sealing of gelatin films (of phytophagous fish, bovine gelatin with high gel-forming ability, and bovine gelatin with low gel-forming ability) containing clay nanoparticles were studied in this research. For this purpose, 6 × 2 × 3 factori...

Mud peeling is a common phenomenon whereby horizontal cracks propagate parallel to the surface of a drying clay. Differential stresses then cause the layer of clay above the crack to curl up to form a mud peel. By treating the clay as a poroelastic solid, we analyse the peeling phenomenon and show that it is caused by the gradient in tensile stress at the surface of the clay, analogously to the...

Many people in sub-Saharan Africa have to rely on meager water resources within mudstones for their only water supply. Although mudstones have been extensively researched for their low permeability behavior, little research has been undertaken to examine their ability to provide sustainable water supplies. To investigate the factors controlling the occurrence of usable ground water in mudstone ...

Various complicated processes, including physical and chemical, occur in clay soils, which finally determine their strength stress-and-strain properties. In order to use soils as a subgrade, it is necessary increase primarily through compaction. soil compaction, the main role belongs physically bound water, gathers around particles forming water envelopes making compaction difficult. The paper ...