A fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based aluminum oxide tube packed sensor (ATPS) was developed for the fast detection of the soil moisture profile in highway slopes and subgrades. The novel ATPS consists of an aluminum oxide tube with a diameter of 5 mm, an optical fiber containing a quasi-distributed FBG sensors, a “U”-shaped resistance wire, and a flange. There are four 0.9-mm diameter holes in the ATPS. Laboratory experiments were carried out to calibrate the relationship between the thermal response of ATPS and the soil moisture content. Two laboratory rainfall validation model tests were performed to validate the ATPS for capturing the soil moisture profile in highway slopes and subgrades. During the validations, the accuracy of the ATPS was quantified, and water infiltration through grassy and grassless ground surfaces were investigated. The calibrations indicate that the ATPS can detect and record real-time changes in the highway slope and subgrade moisture after rainfall, and reveal the most dangerous zones that occur at the connection between different construction materials. The average measurement accuracy of soil moisture monitoring was 0.015 m³/m³. Please note that the connection is where cracks form easily and the soil hydraulic conductivity increases significantly. The test results also indicate that grassy cover (lawn) significantly prevents water infiltration during the first few minutes of rainfall (twelve minutes in this study), after which, however, the infiltration rate drops sharply. The influence of lawn on water infiltration depends on the soil structure, hydraulic conductivity, and rainfall time. In summary, due to its small size and fast detection, the ATPS is a portable probe that can be used for moisture monitoring in highway slopes and subgrades.

Sprinkler irrigation is promoted due to its remarkable advantages in water conservation, but the high energy consumption limits its development in a situation of energy scarcity. In order to determine the energy consumption of a fixed spray-plate sprinkler (FSPS), its discharge and initial trajectory velocity were investigated using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses. A nozzle diameter of 4.76 mm was used under windless conditions. Overall, good agreement between simulation results and experimental values was obtained. On the premise that the simulation method produced high accuracy, a series of simulations was performed with different nozzle diameters. The water distribution pattern, stream trajectory velocity and kinetic energy dissipation were analyzed. The results show that the jet produced at the nozzle is split by grooves after it hits the plate, with separation occurring earlier with decreasing nozzle diameter. The area of the flow cross-section of the outlet is mainly influenced by nozzle diameter rather than working pressure. The initial trajectory velocity of the grooves increases logarithmically with increasing working pressure. A high working pressure may not cause large kinetic energy dissipation. The dissipation rate of the FSPS ranged from 28.01–50.97%, i.e., a large kinetic energy rate was observed. To reduce this energy dissipation and improve water use efficiency, the structure of the FSPS should be optimized in further research.

The steel assembled support structure of a foundation pit can be assembled easily with high strength and recycling value. Steel’s performance is significantly affected by the surrounding temperature due to its temperature sensitivity. Here, a full-scale experiment was conducted to study the influence of temperature on the internal force and deformation of supporting structures, and a three-dimensional finite element model was established for comparative analysis. The test results showed that under the temperature effect, the deformation of the central retaining pile was composed of rigid rotation and flexural deformation, while the adjacent pile of central retaining pile only experienced flexural deformation. The stress on the retaining pile crown changed little, while more stress accumulated at the bottom. Compared with the crown beam and waist beam 2, the stress on waist beam 1 was significantly affected by the temperature and increased by about 0.70 MPa/°C. Meanwhile, the stress of the rigid panel was greatly affected by the temperature, increasing 78% and 82% when the temperature increased by 15 °C on rigid panel 1 and rigid panel 2, respectively. The comparative simulation results indicated that the bending moment and shear strength of pile 1 were markedly affected by the temperature, but pile 2 and pile 3 were basically stable. Lastly, as the temperature varied, waist beam 2 had the largest change in the deflection, followed by waist beam 1; the crown beam experienced the smallest change in the deflection.

Uniformity of water distribution plays an important role in evaluating irrigation quality. As necessities in calculating irrigation uniformity during designing a lateral-move sprinkler irrigation system (LMSIS), the water distribution patterns of individual sprinkler in motion are crucial. Considering the limitation of the experiment platform, dynamic water distribution of an isolated sprinkler is difficult to measure, especially for a fixed spray plate sprinkler (FSPS) which LMSIS has been widely equipped with in China, therefore developing a model to simulate dynamic water distribution of a moving sprinkler is necessary. The objective of this study was to develop and validate the theoretical basis for calculating water distribution characteristics of a single FSPS in translational motion applying a superposition method, and provide an optimized operation management of LMSIS. The theoretical model’s validity was verified in an indoor experiment using a Nelson D3000 FSPS in motion with 36 grooves and blue-plate spray heads. The software was programmed using the Eclipse Platform and the software was capable of simulating water distribution pattern and Christiansen uniformity coefficient (Cu). The results indicated that the water distribution simulated by the software presents three peaks of maximum application under varying conditions, and the value of water application peaks decreased as working pressure and/or mounting height increased. Conversely, the wetted diameter increased as working pressure and/or mounting height increased. Working pressure, mounting height, and sprinkler spacing each had a significant effect on the Cu. The Cu increased as working pressure and/or mounting height increased but decreased as sprinkler spacing increased. As a consequence, the model can be used to predict the relative water distribution pattern; and the Cu can be calculated with the simulated data, thus providing a tool for designing a new LMSIS.

The two‐component foaming polyurethane is a kind of grouting material that has recently been widely used in engineering structural repair. Its physical and mechanical properties are closely related to its microstructure. Therefore, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of polymer microstructure has always been a research hotspot. The statistical characteristics of polymer grouting material microstructure are investigated by six groups of specimens with different densities, and the density varies from 0.1 to 0.6 g/cm³. The microstructure morphology of polymer was observed and described by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the microstructure feature parameters were extracted and calculated by image processing technology. The quantitative analysis of section cell roundness distribution, cell diameter distribution, and polymer porosity shows that low‐density polymer materials have anisotropy. While the density exceeds 0.3 g/cm³, the cell structure tends to be spherical. The section cell diameters obey a normal distribution, and when the density increases, the cell diameter decreases. The porosity of the polymer has a linear negative correlation with the density. The polymer matrix has a density of 1.21 g/cm³. The microstructural information obtained in this study will help establish a cell‐based model to explain the mechanical response of rigid polymer foams.