Evaluation of the effect of the mixture of soil textural compounds on the strength of the soil crust: Coding and optimization

Abstract

Soil is one of the most important parts of an ecosystem. If soil particles are conserved in a basin, it will be possible for the ecosystem to survive. In this study, clay, silt and sand particles were selected as soil conservation compounds and strength and wind erosion tests were performed to assess the crust strength of these compounds. Moreover, due to the lack of clear relationships between these parameters, this research aims to identify the correlations among them. These particles were coded at specific intervals in terms of application rate and then used as inputs in Design Expert software. After 48 h, a penetrometer test was performed on crust layers. The results showed that based on significant correlations between the simulation and laboratory data, the best models are the 2FI mathematical model (strength test) and quadratic (wind erosion). The simulation results indicate that the values of R2 and Adj-R2 were 0.8994 and 0.9311 respectively, and the signal-to-noise ratio was 21.254. The interaction effect of the treatments showed that application of clay in the studied compounds increased penetration strength of the layer. Also, with the increase in clay content, wind erosion first increased and then decreased, and this trend is directly related to the characteristics of clay. Further, the accuracy of the wind erosion simulation results was R2 = 0.9561. According to the optimization results, the maximum soil resistance occurred with 15 g each of clay, silt, and sand. However, it remained constant when sand content increased. This study suggests that application of each compound creates a very different behavior in the formation of soil crust that can be used in many projects on a local and global scale.