The effect of different tillage practices on soil hydraulic properties was studied in a mature, drip irrigated apricot orchard with a 7% slope, in Murcia (SE Spain). The soil had a loamy texture. Three soil tillage treatments were applied between the rows of trees: 1) control treatment (non-tilled, although weeds were cut to ground level using a blade attached to a tractor following the common ...

A series of concrete slabs were cast with 0, 7, and 12% by mass silica fume replacement of cement at W/CM = 0.35, 0.40, and 0.45. After either moist or steam curing, a variety of chloride resistance tests were performed. These included AASHTO T259, modified T259, T277, as well as several bulk diffusion tests and sorptivity tests. Results indicate that the use of properly dispersed silica fume r...

Abstract. Sorptivity is a parameter of primary importance in the study unsaturated flow soils. This hydraulic required to model water infiltration into vertical soil profiles. can be directly estimated from functions (water retention and conductivity curves), using integral formulation Parlange (1975). However, calculating sorptivity this manner requires prior determination diffusivity its nume...

In many exposure environments, capillary absorption of water controls the rate of deterioration of concrete. This paper presents a three-dimensional numerical investigation of capillary absorption by treating concrete as a heterogeneous composite discretised into a cubic lattice. The lattice elements were considered as conductive "pipes" with transport properties assigned based on the phase the...

Both the hardening process and formation of microstructure of concrete are significantly influenced by the curing condition. The capillary absorption of concrete is closely related to the structure and distribution of the pores within the material. This paper presents an experimental study on the influence of four curing conditions, i.e., standard curing, natural curing, water curing, and seale...