With a ceremony held in the Municipal Theater of the commune of Bulnes and organized by the Regional Government of Ñuble together with the University of Bío-Bío, the project “Physical stabilization of channels through TES” was launched, an initiative that will be executed by the study house in two years and financed by the GORE through the Innovation Fund for Competitiveness (FIC).
The UBB project aims to solve natural or artificial soil instability problems to avoid leaks, widening and local scour in the risk channels of the Ñuble region, based on the technological development of a new soil hardening product (TES), and with the purpose of ensuring the supply of water to the irrigation properties and reducing their maintenance costs, explained the academic of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr. Luis Santana Oyarzo, leader of the UBB team.
The academic maintained that the “Soil Hardening Technology (TES) is based on a chemical formulation, under INAPI invention patent Registration Number 64703 (INAPI2019-191 application), which uses low-cost, non-explosive, non-toxic chemical reagents, friendly to the environment and is feasible to obtain based on commodity reagents. With a simple application and equipment for its application commonly used in construction, it will depend on the volume of the soil to be hardened.”
For sandy soils, added the UBB teacher, its application can be done using a sprayer. “The soil hardening technology presents a TLR5, tested mainly in sandy soils, its main characteristic when hardening is an increase in mechanical resistance and cohesion, with a behavior similar to a solid. This can take any shape desired, depending on the location to be placed, generating good adhesion with the underlying soil. “Once hardened there is no observable difference with the original floor.”
Forestry and agricultural activity is predominant in the Ñuble Region, emphasized engineer Luis Santana, and therefore ensuring the availability of water for irrigation at the property level is essential for agricultural production. “The Diguillín River Surveillance Board (JVRD) is an organization of water users relevant at the regional level, managing around 30% of the total regional irrigation flow, through a network of canals (primary, secondary and tertiary) close to the 3,000 km, made up of 41 irrigation canals, distributed in 36 intakes along the Diguillín River, serving 3,007 users (70% men and 30% women). Only the trunk canals are lined and are concentrated in 18 canals with more than 99% of the canal network unlined, a low figure compared to the irrigation network of other basins, such as those of the Itata River and Biobío.”
Precisely, he highlighted, some of the main problems that are associated with water supply at the property level consist of; A loss of the geometry of the channel section (widening, general scour, bank erosion), loss of water due to seepage along the channel, in some channels with loss of up to 40% of flow in 3 km of length, and the degradation of the canal bed in erodible areas and aggradation of the bed in sedimentable areas, product of general scour or proliferation of aquatic grass, variable cleaning cost per canal, covers 50-70% of the extension of the trunk canal, among others.
With this UBB project, said the academic from the Faculty of Engineering, there is a great opportunity to validate a comprehensive irrigation canal stabilization system by incorporating a simple and reliable soil stabilizing product to the agricultural infrastructure market. as a better alternative to physically stabilize irrigation channels.
In addition, “it must be taken into account that the same material that constitutes the canal can be used, avoiding the transport of new materials to the construction or repair area, which allows costs to be significantly reduced and is a competitive alternative. compared to other solutions on the market. The other opportunity generated by the development of this project, which is in line with being an offerer for the market, is the feasibility of certifying the soil hardening technology under the standards required by the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) for this type of civil and other related works.”
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