Abstract:The soil in the Yellow River Delta is featured with poor infiltration and high salinity. Sand incorporation into saline soil can promote disintegration of saline soil clods and improve the soil texture and structure, so as to improve soil infiltration and soil water and salt movement in the soil profile. This study used the saline soil clod in the Yellow River Delta as the experimental materials to investigate the effect mechanism of sand incorporation into saline soil on soil clod disintegration and soil salt leaching under three sand incorporation rates: CK (0), S1 (20% sands), S2 (50% sands), with soil clod composition <1 mm (20%), 1~2 mm (28%), 2~5 mm (34%), and 5~10 mm (18%). The effects of sand incorporation rates on the disintegration of saline soil and its effect on water and salt transports during two consecutive infiltrations were studied. The contents of > 0.25 mm soil clods in S1 and S2 soils were obtained by dry and wet sieving methods. The results indicated that the contents decreased by 17.92%, 15.50% and 51.45%, 32.00%, in S1 and S2 soils respectively, compared with the control group. Under different sand incorporation rates, the wetting front and cumulative infiltration were in the order of S2 > S1 > CK. And the stable infiltration rates of S1 and S2 during the first and second infiltration processes increased by 60.00%, 66.67% and 400.00%, 900.00%, respectively, compared with the control group. The salt leaching rate of the same soil depth increased with the sand incorporation rates. When the sand incorporation rate was 50%, the leaching depth increased by 33.3% and 45.45% compared with 20% incorporation rate and the control group, respectively. The salt leaching amount increased by 1.19%~19.01% and 4.21%~77.52%. In a word, saline soil mixed with sand can effectively promote the salt leaching of saline soil to improve the infiltration rate and salt leaching efficiency. This study can provide a reference basis for saline-alkali soil improvement.