Search results for "Macropore"
showing 10 items of 33 documents
Impacts of thinning of a Mediterranean oak forest on soil properties influencing water infiltration
2017
[EN] In Mediterranean ecosystems, special attention needs to be paid to forest¿water relationships due to water scarcity. In this context, Adaptive Forest Management (AFM) has the objective to establish how forest resources have to be managed with regards to the efficient use of water, which needs maintaining healthy soil properties even after disturbance. The main objective of this investigation was to understand the effect of one of the AFM methods, namely forest thinning, on soil hydraulic properties. At this aim, soil hydraulic characterization was performed on two contiguous Mediterranean oak forest plots, one of them thinned to reduce the forest density from 861 to 414 tree per ha. Th…
Liquid intrusion and alternative methods for the characterization of macroporous materials (IUPAC Technical Report)
2011
This document deals with the characterization of porous materials having pore widths in the macropore range of 50 nm to 500 μm. In recent years, the development of advanced adsorbents and catalysts (e.g., monoliths having hierarchical pore networks) has brought about a renewed interest in macropore structures. Mercury intrusion–extrusion porosimetry is a well-established method, which is at present the most widely used for determining the macropore size distribution. However, because of the reservations raised by the use of mercury, it is now evident that the principles involved in the application of mercury porosimetry require reappraisal and that alternative methods are worth being listed…
The influence of ants on soil and water losses from an orange orchard in eastern Spain
2008
Herbicide applications have greatly reduced plant cover, and increased soil erosion on a new orange orchard planted on valley slopes in eastern Spain. This has increased the importance of soil fauna, such as ants, in regulating soil erosion processes. Ants increase water infiltration rates by forming soil macropores during nest construction, but new soil brought to the surface by ant activity could increase the sediments available for erosion. Simulated rainfall experiments were conducted on 20 paired plots (20 with ant activity and 20 controls) to study the impact of ants on surface water flow and sediment movement in an intensively managed orange orchard near Valencia, Spain. Simulated ra…
Field and Numerical Tests of the Two-Ponding Depth Procedure for Analysis of Single-Ring Pressure Infiltrometer Data
2013
Abstract The two-ponding depth (TPD) analysis procedure of single-ring infiltrometer data can yield invalid results, i.e., negative values of the field-saturated soil hydraulic conductivity or the matric flux potential, denoting failure of the two-level run. The objective of this study was to test the performance of the TPD procedure in analyzing the single-ring infiltrometer data of different types of soils. A field investigation carried out in western Sicily, Italy, yielded higher failure rates (40%) in two clay loam soils than in a sandy loam soil (25%). A similar result, i.e., fine-textured soils yielding higher failure rates than the coarse-textured one, was obtained using numerically …
Obtaining of the Modified NH4NO3 Granules with 3-D Nanoporous Structure: Impact of Humidifier Type on the Granule’s Structure
2018
The article deals with the study of the porous ammonium nitrate granules’ (PAN) nanoporous structure of surface and surface layers. The research results, presented in the article, show that the suggested way to generate PAN allows to provide the granule porous structure without destruction of core and disposal of air from the granules. Analysis of experiments results has shown that various types of humidifiers can form various kinds of pores after drying – “mechanical” pores and “modification” pores. Various types of humidifiers have significant effect on the ratio of values of “mechanical” and “modification” pores. The obtained results allow to select the optimal humidifier composition, wh…
Soils with Specific Features
2016
This chapter deals with some specific features of soil that are relevant for interpretation of infiltration experiments. Infiltration in water repellent soils is first examined. After summarizing the causes of hydrophobicity, phenomena associated to infiltration in water repellent soil, including reduced infiltration rates and irregular wetting front advance, are illustrated. The Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT), the Molarity of an Ethanol Droplet (MED) and the Repellency tests for quantitative assessment of soil water repellency are presented. Particular attention is given to estimation of subcritical soil water repellency by means of soil sorptivity measurements conducted with infiltrat…
Photocatalytic H2 production over inverse opal TiO2 catalysts
2019
Abstract The influence of BiVO4 and CuO on the chemico-physical properties of TiO2-based systems is reported. The performances of these systems were investigated in the photocatalytic H2 production both under UV and solar light irradiation. The characterization data pointed out that the obtained TiO2 samples have highly porous inverse opal structures with interconnected macropores. Inverse opal TiO2 exhibited higher activity in the H2 production than the commercial TiO2 due to the peculiar porosity that allows photons to enter inside the photocatalyst. A further improvement in terms of photoactivity was verified by addition of increasing amounts of BiVO4. On the contrary a small CuO content…
Porous structure of Purevision™ versus Focus® Night&Day™ and conventional hydrogel contact lenses
2002
The surface and bulk structures of hydrogel contact lenses that contain siloxane moieties, Purevision™ (balafilcon A) and Focus®Night&Day™ (lotrafilcon A), were investigated. Standard hydrogel lenses of low (Seequence®), medium (Acuvue®), and high water content (Precision UV®) were used as controls. All the lenses were dehydrated in a series of ethanol solutions of increased concentration, critical-point dried in CO2, and sputter coated with gold/palladium before they were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Of all lenses examined, only the balafilcon lenses presented, in addition to the polymer network porosity characteristic of all hydrogels, a macroporous structure that was observe…
Thalassiosira pseudonana diatom as biotemplate to produce a macroporous ordered carbon-rich material
2008
Abstract Ordered macroporous–mesoporous carbonaceous materials were produced as a direct replica of the Thalassiosira pseudonana diatom by infiltration of the skeleton with furfuryl alcohol. The final carbon-rich material preserves the macropores of the diatom acting as bio-template and new hierarchical macro–mesopores appears as the silica is eliminated through chemical etching. The final solid can be described as an organized array of carbon macrotubes. In order to understand the progressive silica etching and the subsequent effect on the final carbon material, different etching reagents have been used. Moreover, the similar pore topology of T. pseudonana and the well known MCM-41 mesopor…
Multilayer modified NH<inf>4</inf>NO<inf>3</inf> granules with 3D nanoporous structure: Effect of the heat treatment regime o…
2017
The article is devoted to the investigation of the structure of macro- and mesopores on the surface and inside of modified NH4NO3 granules. The main quality indicators of modified NH4NO3 granules are presented and the relationship between the nanoporous structure of granules and the quality indicators is shown. Various thermodynamic conditions for obtaining a nanoporous structure of the surface and internal layers during the modification of granules are considered. The optimal regime for the uniformity of the temperature distribution in the vortex granulator is the regime of mixed motion of the drying agent. In this mode, mainly “modification” pores are formed, “mechanical” pores due to the…