Modeling of soil degradation phenomena and development of an autonomous non-destructive testing device with real-time software

The goal of the work is to develop an iterative method for calculating heat and mass transfer in soil, namely:

a) to construct a nonlinear direct and adjoint difference problem for the system of heat and moisture conduction in soil;

b) to construct an approximate formula for calculating the heat and moisture conductivity coefficient of soil based on data measured at the ground surface and the system of heat and mass transfer equations;

c) to assemble a pilot version of a measuring device capable of providing temperature and moisture content at the accessible boundary of the study area; d) to perform numerical calculations confirming the convergence of the developed methods.

The following results were obtained in 2018–2020:

1. based on the heat and moisture transfer model and measured moisture and heat values, an iterative method was developed for calculating the thermal and moisture conductivity coefficients of soil;
2. a software product capable of determining the thermal and moisture conductivity coefficients of soil was developed;
3. numerical calculations were performed using experimental data to determine the required soil parameters;
4. a priori estimates were obtained for the solution of the direct and adjoint difference problem;
5. the convergence and stability of the difference schemes were proven;
6. the boundedness of the approximate values of the thermal and moisture conductivity coefficients of a porous medium was proven;
7. a schematic diagram of the device was developed and a pilot version was created that can simultaneously measure the moisture and temperature of the soil and the environment;
8. the measuring device is equipped with its own software that processes the measured data and outputs the results to external media. As a result of the research, 7 master's theses were defended, and one PhD dissertation is nearing completion. 5 articles were published: 1 article in a peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore percentile of 96% (IF 8.2) in Scopus (Web of Science, Q1, IF 4.947); 3 articles in peer-reviewed journals with a Scopus percentile; and 1 article in a journal recommended by the Committee for Quality Assurance in Education and Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The research results were also presented at one national and seven international scientific conferences and a symposium. 1 copyright certificate and 1 certificate of entry into the state register of rights were obtained, and 1 monograph was written.

Once the final version of the measuring device is completed, the commercialization of the project results can be considered.