The Application of Computed Tomography to Study the Soil Porosity of Mountain Red Earth

Abstract

Mountain red soil, as a special type of soil in the South, has received widespread attention for its soil erosion problems. Its pore structure restricts water infiltration, thereby affecting the occurrence and development of soil erosion. In order to systematically obtain the distribution characteristics of the pore structure within the surface mountain red soil, this paper uses non-destructive CT detection technology to scan the soil column samples taken from the typical mountain red soil distribution area in Chenggong District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province. Image processing technology is applied to CT slices, and ImageJ (1.46r) software is used to obtain the distribution characteristics of pores within the soil column, including pore sizes and the number of pores at each depth, the proportion of pore area, roundness, and box-counting dimension. The results show that with the increase in depth, the proportion of pore area decreases linearly from the maximum value of 52.25% at the top to the minimum value of 2.02% at the bottom; the roundness of pores fluctuates between 0.8 and 0.9, overall increasing; the total number of pores generally first increases then decreases, and small pores are predominant, with the least number of large pores in the topsoil layer; the box-counting dimension shows a gradual linear decrease, with a maximum value of 1.7980 and a minimum value of 0.9878. The number of pores affects both roundness and the box-counting dimension, and the proportion of pore area also affects the box-counting dimension. There is a negative correlation between roundness and the box-counting dimension. The 3D visualization reconstruction of pores shows that most are interconnected, with the pore size significantly reducing with increasing depth. The quantitative analysis of parameters and 3D visualization reveal, to some extent, the impact of pore structure on the occurrence and development of soil erosion in mountain red soil. These research findings form the foundation for studying soil erosion in this region and provide a basis for systematically understanding its processes and mechanisms.