scholarly journals Softening of Temperate Ice by Interstitial Water

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conner J. C. Adams ◽  
Neal R. Iverson ◽  
Christian Helanow ◽  
Lucas K. Zoet ◽  
Charlotte E. Bate

Ice at depth in ice-stream shear margins is thought to commonly be temperate, with interstitial meltwater that softens ice. Models that include this softening extrapolate results of a single experimental study in which ice effective viscosity decreased by a factor of ∼3 over water contents of ∼0.01–0.8%. Modeling indicates this softening by water localizes strain in shear margins and through shear heating increases meltwater at the bed, enhancing basal slip. To extend data to higher water contents, we shear lab-made ice in confined compression with a large ring-shear device. Ice rings with initial mean grain sizes of 2–4 mm are kept at the pressure-melting temperature and sheared at controlled rates with peak stresses of ∼0.06–0.20 MPa, spanning most of the estimated shear-stress range in West Antarctic shear margins. Final mean grain sizes are 8–13 mm. Water content is measured by inducing a freezing front at the ice-ring edges, tracking its movement inward with thermistors, and fitting the data with solutions of the relevant Stefan problem. Results indicate two creep regimes, below and above a water content of ∼0.6%. Comparison of effective viscosity values in secondary creep with those of tertiary creep from the earlier experimental study indicate that for water contents of 0.2–0.6%, viscosity in secondary creep is about twice as sensitive to water content than for ice sheared to tertiary creep. Above water contents of 0.6%, viscosity values in secondary creep are within 25% of those of tertiary creep, suggesting a stress-limiting mechanism at water contents greater than 0.6% that is insensitive to ice fabric development in tertiary creep. At water contents of ∼0.6–1.7%, effective viscosity is independent of water content, and ice is nearly linear-viscous. Minimization of intercrystalline stress heterogeneity by grain-scale melting and refreezing at rates that approach an upper bound as grain-boundary water films thicken might account for the two regimes.

Author(s):  
Liang Li ◽  
Yuya Sakai

A large amount of concrete waste is generated around the world and its recycling is an urgent issue. In this research, a new approach to recycle concrete waste with wooden waste was studied. Concrete and wooden wastes were crushed, mixed, and heat compacted to produce plates with different water contents and mix proportions at various temperatures, pressures, and durations of compaction. The bending strength of the plates was measured after compaction. The result indicated that with an increase in the percentage of wooden waste in the mixture, pressure, or temperature improved the bending strength. The increase in water content reduced the bending strength. Most of the products exhibited higher bending strength than that of ordinary concrete.


2011 ◽  
Vol 261-263 ◽  
pp. 1650-1654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Ji ◽  
Jian Wen Ding ◽  
Zhen Shun Hong ◽  
Yue Gui

A series of model tests were performed on dredged clay with high initial water contents for investigating the dewatering behavior by ventilating vacuum method (VVM). The results shows that the surface water separated from dredged clay can be quickly removed by VVM in which a new pattern PVD is used. In addition, the method also speeds up the deposition of dredged clay. The volume of dredged clay with an initial water content of 4.5 times liquid limit decreases by 50 percent within two months. This paper also investigated the spatial distribution law of water content by TDR method. It is found that the drainage distance of PVD is about 0.3-0.4m.


1990 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Conca ◽  
Judith Wright

ABSTRACTSimple diffusion coefficients, D(θ), in most unsaturated media were found to be primarily a function of water content and not material characteristics except where the characteristics affect or determine water content. At high water contents, D(θ) gradually declines as water content decreases, from 10−5 cm2/sec at a volumetric water content of about 50% to 10−7 cm2/sec at a volumetric water content of about 5%, followed by a sharp decline as surface water films become thin and discontinuous and pendular water elements become very small, from 10−7 cm2/sec at a volumetric water content of about 5% to 10−9 cm2/sec at a volumetric water content of about 0.5% to 1%.


2011 ◽  
Vol 356-360 ◽  
pp. 2725-2729
Author(s):  
Yun Hai Cheng ◽  
Xin Shan Guo ◽  
Fu Xing Jiang ◽  
Zhi Liang Fu

Stress-strain relationship of waste body under different side pressures, water contents and particle fractions are investigated in this paper. The bearing features of waste filled body of entry retaining besides gob-side entry retaining are: (1) filling waste gob-side entry retaining requires adequate horizontal restraint; (2) gangue water content has little effect on filling body intensity and waste in natural water content state can be used to fill in gob-side entry retaining; (3) stress and -strain relationship of waste body (grain size ranges from 0 to 10mm) is nonlinear. The bearing capacity can meet the requirement of beside gob-side entry retaining support. Based on above experimental results, the industrial roadway retained experiment is successful. The research results provide theory design basis for wide application.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Zai-kun Zhao ◽  
Tie-hang Wang ◽  
Xin Jin ◽  
Yu Zhang

An experimental study on the normal frost-heave force generated by loess was conducted by subjecting loess with various water contents and densities to different temperature conditions. The experimental results show that the interaction of the three factors has a significant effect on the normal frost-heaving force. Normal frost-heave force increases exponentially with an increase in dry density and linearly with a reduction in the freezing temperature or an increase in water content; of these factors, dry density has the greatest influence on frost-heave force, followed by water content then temperature. A frost-heave force model is developed that includes overall consideration of the interactions of water content, density, and temperature based on fitting of the test results. The value calculated with the model is in good agreement with values measured in verification tests, indicating that the model has high accuracy and can provide scientific guidance for engineering design in loess areas.


Author(s):  
MUHAMMAD ASLAM ALI ◽  
SANJIT CHANDRA BARMAN ◽  
MD. ASHRAFUL ISLAM KHAN ◽  
MD. BADIUZZAMAN KHAN ◽  
HAFSA JAHAN HIYA

Climate change and water scarcity may badly affect existing rice production system in Bangladesh. With a view to sustain rice productivity and mitigate yield scaled CH4 emission in the changing climatic conditions, a pot experiment was conducted under different soil water contents, biochar and silicate amendments with inorganic fertilization (NPKS). In this regard, 12 treatments combinations of biochar, silicate and NPKS fertilizer along with continuous standing water (CSW), soil saturation water content and field capacity (100% and 50%) moisture levels were arranged into rice planted potted soils. Gas samples were collected from rice planted pots through Closed Chamber technique and analyzed by Gas Chromatograph. This study revealed that seasonal CH4 emissions were suppressed through integrated biochar and silicate amendments with NPKS fertilizer (50–75% of the recommended doze), while increased rice yield significantly at different soil water contents. Biochar and silicate amendments with NPKS fertilizer (50% of the recommended doze) increased rice grain yield by 10.9%, 18.1%, 13.0% and 14.2%, while decreased seasonal CH4 emissions by 22.8%, 20.9%, 23.3% and 24.3% at continuous standing water level (CSW) (T9), at saturated soil water content (T10), at 100% field capacity soil water content (T11) and at 50% field capacity soil water content (T12), respectively. Soil porosity, soil redox status, SOC and free iron oxide contents were improved with biochar and silicate amendments. Furthermore, rice root oxidation activity (ROA) was found more dominant in water stress condition compared to flooded and saturated soil water contents, which ultimately reduced seasonal CH4 emissions as well as yield scaled CH4 emission. Conclusively, soil amendments with biochar and silicate fertilizer may be a rational practice to reduce the demand for inorganic fertilization and mitigate CH4 emissions during rice cultivation under water stress drought conditions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beibei Zhou ◽  
Xiaopeng Chen

The poor water retention capacity of sandy soils commonly aggregate soil erosion and ecological environment on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Due to its strong capacity for absorption and large specific surface area, the use of nanocarbon made of coconut shell as a soil amendment that could improve water retention was investigated. Soil column experiments were conducted in which a layer of nanocarbon mixed well with the soil was formed at a depth of 20 cm below the soil surface. Four different nanocarbon contents by weight (0%, 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1%) and five thicknesses of the nanocarbon- soil mixture layer ranging from 1 to 5 cm were considered. Cumulative infiltration and soil water content distributions were determined when water was added to soil columns. Soil Water Characteristic Curves (SWCC) were obtained using the centrifuge method. The principal results showed that the infiltration rate and cumulative infiltration increased with the increases of nanocarbon contents, to the thicknesses of the nano carbon-soil mixture layer. Soil water contents that below the soil-nano carbon layer decreased sharply. Both the Brooks-Corey and van Genuchten models could describe well the SWCC of the disturbed sandy soil with various nano carbon contents. Both the saturated water content (θs), residual water content (θr) and empirical parameter (α) increased with increasing nano carbon content, while the pore-size distribution parameter (n) decreased. The available soil water contents were efficiently increased with the increase in nanocarbon contents.


Solid Earth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 1025-1045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas K. Kronenberg ◽  
Hasnor F. B. Hasnan ◽  
Caleb W. Holyoke III ◽  
Richard D. Law ◽  
Zhenxian Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Previous measurements of water in deformed quartzites using conventional Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) instruments have shown that water contents of larger grains vary from one grain to another. However, the non-equilibrium variations in water content between neighboring grains and within quartz grains cannot be interrogated further without greater measurement resolution, nor can water contents be measured in finely recrystallized grains without including absorption bands due to fluid inclusions, films, and secondary minerals at grain boundaries.Synchrotron infrared (IR) radiation coupled to a FTIR spectrometer has allowed us to distinguish and measure OH bands due to fluid inclusions, hydrogen point defects, and secondary hydrous mineral inclusions through an aperture of 10 µm for specimens > 40 µm thick. Doubly polished infrared (IR) plates can be prepared with thicknesses down to 4–8 µm, but measurement of small OH bands is currently limited by strong interference fringes for samples < 25 µm thick, precluding measurements of water within individual, finely recrystallized grains. By translating specimens under the 10 µm IR beam by steps of 10 to 50 µm, using a software-controlled x − y stage, spectra have been collected over specimen areas of nearly 4.5 mm2. This technique allowed us to separate and quantify broad OH bands due to fluid inclusions in quartz and OH bands due to micas and map their distributions in quartzites from the Moine Thrust (Scotland) and Main Central Thrust (Himalayas).Mylonitic quartzites deformed under greenschist facies conditions in the footwall to the Moine Thrust (MT) exhibit a large and variable 3400 cm−1 OH absorption band due to molecular water, and maps of water content corresponding to fluid inclusions show that inclusion densities correlate with deformation and recrystallization microstructures. Quartz grains of mylonitic orthogneisses and paragneisses deformed under amphibolite conditions in the hanging wall to the Main Central Thrust (MCT) exhibit smaller broad OH bands, and spectra are dominated by sharp bands at 3595 to 3379 cm−1 due to hydrogen point defects that appear to have uniform, equilibrium concentrations in the driest samples. The broad OH band at 3400 cm−1 in these rocks is much less common. The variable water concentrations of MT quartzites and lack of detectable water in highly sheared MCT mylonites challenge our understanding of quartz rheology. However, where water absorption bands can be detected and compared with deformation microstructures, OH concentration maps provide information on the histories of deformation and recovery, evidence for the introduction and loss of fluid inclusions, and water weakening processes.


1998 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. W. Pammenter ◽  
Valerie Greggains ◽  
J. I. Kioko ◽  
J. Wesley-Smith ◽  
Patricia Berjak ◽  
...  

AbstractThe drying rate of whole seeds of Ekebergia capensis (Meliaceae) was shown to influence the response to desiccation, with rapidly dried seeds surviving to lower water contents. Short-term rapid drying (to water contents higher than those leading to viability loss) actually increased the rate of germination. The form of the time course of decline of axis water content varied with drying rate; slow drying could be described by an exponential function, whereas with rapid drying initial water loss was faster than predicted by an exponential function. These observations suggest that slow drying brought about homogeneous dehydration and that the rapid drying was uneven across the tissue. This raised the possibility that the different responses to dehydration were a function of different distributions of water in the axis tissue under the two drying regimes. However, ultrastructural observations indicated that different deleterious processes may be occurring under the different drying treatments. It was tentatively concluded that a major cause of viability loss in slowly dried material was likely to be a consequence of aqueous-based processes leading to considerable membrane degradation. Uneven distribution of tissue water could not be rejected as a contributory cause of the survival of rapidly dried seeds to low bulk water contents. The differential response to dehydration at different drying rates implies that it is not possible to determine a ‘critical water content’ for viability loss by recalcitrant seeds.


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