USO DEL MODELO FRACTAL PARA CARACTERIZAR LA DISTRIBUCION DE TAMAÑO DE PARTICULAS EN SUELOS

FILGUEIRA, R.; GARCÍA M. ; ROGGIERO MARTHA F:; CERISOLA C.

Ciencia del Suelo

ASOCIACIÓN ARGENTINA DE LA CIENCIA DEL SUELO

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2002 vol. 20 p. 114 - 117

0326-3169

RR FILGUEIRA 1, MG GARCÍA, MF ROGGIERO, CI CERISOLA, A ARAGÓN, GO SARLI Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, UNLP, Calles 60 y 119, CC 31- 1900 La Plata- tel (0221) 4236758, Email: filgueira@infovia.com.ar 1 Investigador Científico de CONICET Recibido 21 de junio de 2002, aceptado 4 de noviembre de 2002 THE USE OF THE FRACTAL MODEL TO CHARACTERIZE PARTICLE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION IN SOILS The objective of this study was to characterize the particle-size distribution of a soil by means of fractal geometry using the accumulated mass fraction and the particle diameter. In order to fit the experimental data the accumulated mass and the particle diameter were related by a power law relation, as a result of considering the fragmentation process as fractal. The samples were taken from a Typic Argiudoll, near La Plata City, Buenos Aires Province, at depths ranging from 0 to 400 mm. The fit of experimental results was satisfactory, with fragmentation fractal dimensions, D, ranging from 2.403 to 2.679 and coefficients of correlation, R2, ranging from 0.879 to 0.999. The values obtained in the present study differ considerably from the universal parameter D = 2.8 suggested by other researchers. However, our results were in agreement with other studies with soils of similar clay contents. The conclusions emerged from the study confirmed that mass distribution versus particle diameter followed a power law relation, consistent with a probabilistic fractal model of fragmentation, and that the fractal dimension increased with the increasing clay content and soil depth. key words: Particle-size Distribution, Sedimentation, Fractal, Clay Contents.