ASME Press Select Proceedings

# Intelligent Engineering Systems through Artificial Neural Networks

Editor
Cihan H. Dagli
Cihan H. Dagli
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K. Mark Bryden
K. Mark Bryden
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Steven M. Corns
Steven M. Corns
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Mitsuo Gen
Mitsuo Gen
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Kagan Tumer
Kagan Tumer
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Gürsel Süer
Gürsel Süer
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ISBN:
9780791802953
No. of Pages:
636
Publisher:
ASME Press
Publication date:
2009

X-ray computed tomography (CT) has been used to evaluate differences in structure for soils. Soil development under different ecological regions has been found to significantly alter soil structural properties. Objectives of this study were to evaluate CT scan porosity images using fractal dimension and lacunarity for Russian soils developed under meadow, forest and a forest-meadow transition zone. Thirty intact samples taken at two depths were scanned at 7 mm distances throughout each core to provide nine scans per sample. For moist soil samples (−10 kPa potential), the fractal dimension and lacunarity were statistically different ($P<0.05$) among ecosystem treatments. However for dry soil samples (<−3 MPa), only the fractal dimension was statistically different among treatments. Results of the study indicate that fractal dimension significantly ($P<0.05$) decreased with soil depth for both water potentials but lacunarity was not significantly affected by depth. Saturated hydraulic conductivity was found to be correlated with CT-measured macroporosity ($r=0.69$) and the slope of the lacunarity curve ($r=−0.53$). Fractal analysis of CT images from soils offers a potential tool for evaluating soil macroporosity changes under different ecosystems.