A quantification of soil porosity using X-ray Computed Tomography of a Drummer silty clay loam soil<i> </i>

<b><sc>Abstract.</sc></b> X-Ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) facilitates the quantification of soil structure by measuring soil macro-pore size, distribution, and porosity. An investigation of the effects of ultra-flex tires operating at low and standard tire inflation pressures on a silty clay loam soil prepared with three tillage systems (deep tillage, 450mm; shallow tillage, 100mm and no-till) on soil porosity using X-Ray Computed Tomography was conducted in the Molecular Imaging Laboratory at the Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. The soil samples were collected from the treatments in a split-plot, factorial randomized complete block design field experiment with five blocks. In this experiment tire inflation pressure and tillage system were the main treatment plots and the trafficked locations, named highly…