Soil is a granular medium that varies in composition from organic peat to gravel and that may contain various amounts of water. The soil physical system is continually being subjected to external forces and is, therefore, dynamic. These external forces may be environmental (climate, plants, animals, and microorganisms) or mechanical (forces applied by man using some type of machine). The specif...

[1] We used the trace gas model DayCent to simulate emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) from a urine-affected pasture in New Zealand. The data set for this site contained yearround daily emissions of nitrification-N2O (N2Onit) and denitrification-N2O (N2Oden), meteorological data, soil moisture, and at least weekly data on soil ammonium (NH4 ) and nitrate (NO3 ) content. Evapotranspiration, soil t...

The geomorphic behavior of a soil-mantled hillslope undergoing diffusive creep involves a coupling between changes in land surface elevation, soil transport rates, soil production, and soil thickness. A linear stability analysis suggests that the coupled response of the soil mantle to small perturbations in soil thickness or surface topography is influenced by two factors. The diffusive-like be...

The Riparian Soil Model (RSM) of Brovelli et al. (2012) was applied to study soil nutrient turnover in a revitalized section of the Thur River, North-East Switzerland. In the present work, the model was calibrated on field experimental data, and satisfactorily reproduced soil respiration, organic matter stocks and inorganic nitrogen fluxes. Calibrated rates were in good agreement with the range...

In this paper, numerical analysis of a pile-soil interaction problem is presented considering the parameters influencing the axial load-deformation behavior of the pile embedded in a layered soil medium. The analysis is demonstrated with parametric solutions of a pile with underlain model soil strata under the axial force. An attempt is made to ascertain the extent of influence of elastic prope...

In this paper, an elastoplastic constitutive model is presented for predicting sandy soil behavior under monotonic and cyclic loadings. The model is based on the CJS3 model that takes into account deviatoric and isotropic mechanisms of plasticity. The flow rule in deviatoric mechanism is non-associated and a kinematic hardening law controls the evolution of the &#10yield surface. In the present...

Liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid cyclic loading. Liquefaction and related phenomena have been responsible for huge amounts of damage in historical earthquakes around the world. Modeling of soil behavior is the main step in soil liquefaction prediction process. Nowadays, several constitutive models for sand...

Mollisols of Santa Fe have different tilth and load support capacity. Despite the importance of these attributes to achieve a sustainable crop production, few information is available. The objectives of this study are i) to assess soil physical indicators related to plant growth and to soil mechanical behavior; and ii) to establish relationships to estimate the impact of soil loading on the soi...

One of the critical factors for successfully conducting contamination characterization, removal, and remedial operations at hazardous waste sites is rapid and appropriate response to analyze samples in a timely fashion. Turnaround time associated with off-site analysis is often too slow to support efficient utilization of the data. Field portable X-ray fluorescence (FPXRF) techniques provide vi...

Soil behavior during stress wave propagation was studied on a sand and two clays by making one-dimensional wave propagation tests on 5-meter long columns of the soils. Attempts were made to predict this behavior by determining soil properties in dynamic compression tests on small samples and by using these properties in a variety of mathematical models for soil. In all the wave propagation test...