ALTERAÇÕES NA INFILTRAÇÃO DE ÁGUA EM LATOSSOLOS DEVIDAS À INCORPORAÇÃO CONTROLADA DE RESÍDUO INDUSTRIAL DE SILICATOS

Abstract

In this work water infiltration experiments were carried out in horizontal unsaturated soils columns. Three soils, Red-Yellow Latosol, Dark-Red Latosol, and Dusky-Red Latosol were treated with a silicate residue produced by an industry from Rio Claro city, SP. The residue was added to each soil at the rate (in weight) of 1%, 2%, 5% and 10%. A soil column without residue was used as a control. The position of wetting front as a function of the square root of the flow infiltration time, and water contents at air-dry and saturated soils columns were measured. The result shows that the increase on the rate of incorporated residue decreased the wetting front velocity. The main conclusion is that residue addition on soils decreased the water infiltration, whereas the water retention was increased, which is beneficial to the agriculture. From the environmental point of view, the use of the industrial residue as soil conditioner is beneficial within the limits of this study, since it represents an alternative to storage, and/or waste disposal.