Triaxial testing to determine the effect of soil type and organic carbon content on soil consolidation and shear deformation characteristics

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Chakraborty, D., Watts, C. W., Powlson, D. S., Macdonald, A. J., Ashton, R. W., White, Robin P. and Whalley, W. R. 2014. Triaxial testing to determine the effect of soil type and organic carbon content on soil consolidation and shear deformation characteristics. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 78, pp. 1192-1200. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2014.01.0007

AuthorsChakraborty, D., Watts, C. W., Powlson, D. S., Macdonald, A. J., Ashton, R. W., White, Robin P. and Whalley, W. R.
Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of soil type and organic matter on the deformation characteristics of soil. We used triaxial testing to measure both the consolidation and shear deformation of soil. The novel application of this method was applied to soils from two experiments: on a clay loam and a sandy loam. The clay loam soil was from the long-term Broadbalk Experiment at Rothamsted Research, UK, where contrasting treatments had been applied since 1843. The sandy loam soil was from a straw incorporation experiment started in 1986. The clay loam soil from selected treatments from the Broadbalk Experiment had large difference in soil organic C (SOC) content due to additions of farmyard manure (FYM) or inorganic fertilizers for over 170 yr. There were no detectable differences in SOC or microbial biomass C in the sandy loam soil where straw had been incorporated. In addition to triaxial testing, we assessed soil physical condition with measurements of aggregate stability and aggregate tensile strength. From triaxial tests of the repacked soil, we found that soil type and SOC affected the compression characteristics. We also observed that deformation characteristics are more sensitive to small changes in soil management practices designed to increase the SOC content, than measurements of aggregate tensile strength, friability, or stability. We suggest that measurement of deformation characteristics is a potentially powerful approach for detecting or predicting changes in soil physical conditions as impacted by small changes in SOC content resulting from management practices.

Year of Publication2014
JournalSoil Science Society of America Journal
Journal citation78, pp. 1192-1200
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2014.01.0007
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Lawes Agricultural Trust
Funder project or codeWheat
The Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments including Sample Archive and e-RA database [2012-2017]
[20:20 Wheat] Soil resource interactions
Statistics Department (Rothamsted)
Publisher's version
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online30 Jan 2014
Publication process dates
Accepted30 Jun 2014
PublisherSSSA
SOIL SCI SOC AMER
Copyright licenseCC BY
ISSN0361-5995

Permalink - https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/8qz63/triaxial-testing-to-determine-the-effect-of-soil-type-and-organic-carbon-content-on-soil-consolidation-and-shear-deformation-characteristics

188 total views
193 total downloads
0 views this month
0 downloads this month
Download files as zip