Experimental Investigation of Thermo-Physical Properties of Soil Using Solarisation Technology

Abstract

Soil Thermo-Physical Properties (TPP) depend on heat transfer in the soil. This paper presents a study on different soil solarisation technologies influenced by soil TPP. This study evaluates three factors: The tillage depth for soil at three levels (15, 25 and 45 cm), the number of plastic film at three levels (single, double and without plastic film) and three cases of fertilizers (chemical fertilizer, organic fertilizer and without fertilizer). The parameters explored in this study include soil bulk density (Mg/cm 3 ), soil porosity (%), soil volumetric moisture content (cm 3 /cm 3 ) and soil thermal diffusivity (m 2 /sec). Data management and analysis were performed using SAS 9.1 statistical software and the spilt-plot under higher values for Φ and θ for soil (52.70% and 0.231 cm 3 /cm 3 , respectively). Furthermore, the current study shows significant differences between the types of fertilizers on ρ b . Organic Fertilizer (OF) obtained a lower value of ρ b (1.2 Mg/m 3 ), compared with chemical fertilizer and without fertilizer (1.28 and 1.31 Mg/m 3 , respectively). In contrast, contrary to expectations, this study did not find significant differences between the types of fertilizer on D and θ for soil. A positive correlation was found in the interaction between the studied factors in the parameters. Furthermore, D increased with increasing soil bulk density (pb) and tillage depth.

Effects of solarisation on soil thermal-physical properties under different soil treatments: A review

“…In contrast, no-tillage has some positive impacts on soil moisture capacity as it reduces evaporation (Lampurlanés et al, 2016;Zhao et al, 2018), and soil aeration, and subsequently improves soil thermal properties (Blanco-Canqui and Ruis, 2018). The tillage system has a significant impact on soil thermal properties in the short term (Al-Shammary et al, 2017;Allmaras et al, 1977) as tillage leads to decreased soil thermal conductivity (k) (Blanco-Canqui and Ruis, 2018), soil thermal flux density (𝑞𝑞ℎ) (Azooz et al, 1997), soil volumetric heat capacity (C v ) and soil thermal diffusivity (Ɗ) (Blanco-Canqui and Ruis, 2018).…”

“…The influence of organic and chemical fertilisers during the application of soil solarisation technology on soil physical properties has also been investigated. Some authors observed that organic fertiliser significantly decreases the bulk density ρ b by increasing porosity Φ due to the decrease in soil structural stability (Al-Shammary et al, 2017;Chaudhari et al, 2013;Merante et al, 2017). Fertilisers are also able to increase soil Φ because they can enhance the organic content (Haynes and Naidu, 1998).…”

“…Moreover, it is interesting to note how other authors demonstrated that the modification of soil moisture content as a result of solarisation technology could also affect the thermal flux density (𝑞𝑞ℎ), thermal conductivity (k), volumetric heat capacity (C v ), diffusivity (Ɗ), and soil temperature (T s ) because the heat flow increases when soil µ improves (Al-Shammary et al, 2017;Badía et al, 2017;Mengistu et al, 2017). Regardless, there is a lack of information about the possible hygrometrical changes below the cover that would modify the microbiological activity.…”

“…Grünzweig et al (1999) also found that nitrogen accumulation can increase during soil solarisation because of the higher decomposition rates of the organic matter and the death of microbial biomass. According to Braida et al (2008), soil organic matter combined with solarisation application can significantly affect soil elasticity which leads to positive effects on soil health by reducing soil compaction, increasing water-holding capacity and heat transfer (Al-Shammary et al, 2017;Chaudhari et al, 2013).…”

“…The type of tillage system, the addition of fertiliser, and the influence on inherent soil properties of the plastic mulch are all technical, or management factors, that significantly impact on soil solarisation (Al-Shammary et al, 2017) and soil thermal-physical properties (Blanco-Canqui and Ruis, 2018;Ozpinar et al, 2018). However, there is a lack of a complete and general review of this widely used technology.…”