PROFESSOR - ZhiQiang Chen
Dr. ZhiQiang Chenchenzhiq@umkc.edu
Hydrophobicity is commonly found in farming soils, wildfire affected soils, and urban lands. Soil hydrophobicity (SH) as an intrinsic soil property affects water runoff, retention, and chemical transport significantly; therefore, SH is seriously concerned world wide by agriculture stakeholders. How to mechanically understand the effects of hydrophobicity on water runoff and soil properties remains a challenging issue. Laboratory testing is a common approach to study this phenomena; however, most procedures and practice are established for field soil with significant human and field variations and uncertainties. Artificially created hydrophobic soils are critically needed with controlled degree of hydrophobicity for verifying and validating computational models, which are essential for developing predictive models for decision making. This project targets this gap and aims to create an artificially created soil with parametrically controllable hydrophobicity. The materials used to realize this is a recently emerged nano technology-based acrylic dispersion. Experimental protocols need to be establish for creating hydrophobic soils with adjustable hydrophobicity. The project is expected to deliver a statistical model that correlates the amount of this agent with the indicator of soil hydrophobicity in terms of water drop test values.
UMKC's Soil Lab at the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Civil Engineering, Physics, or Geosciences students.
The project is expected to complete by September of 2017.
Students are expect to apply for the SEARCH program.
Design and conduct lab experiments.
Aug 24, 2016
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