Search results for "Infiltrometer"

On Infiltration and Infiltration Characteristic Times

2022

In his seminal paper on the solution of the infiltration equation, Philip (1969), https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-1-4831-9936-8.50010-6 proposed a gravity time, tgrav, to estimate practical convergence time and the time domain validity of his infinite time series expansion, TSE, for describing the transient state. The parameter tgrav refers to a point in time where infiltration is dominated equally by capillarity and gravity as derived from the first two (dominant) terms of the TSE. Evidence suggests that applicability of the truncated two-term equation of Philip has a time limit requiring higher-order TSE terms to better describe the infiltration process for times exceeding that limit. Since …

A test of the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure

2014

Abstract The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure is attractive for a simple soil hydraulic characterization but testing the ability of this procedure to estimate soil properties is necessary. The BEST predictions were compared with soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity data measured in the laboratory and the field, respectively, at ten Sicilian field sites. Provided that BEST yielded physically possible scale parameters of the soil characteristic curves in most of the four replicated infiltration runs at a site, the measured water retention was satisfactorily predicted (i.e., not statistically significant differences between measurements and predictions…

Testing steady-state analysis of single-ring and square pressure infiltrometer data

2016

Testing reliability of the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, estimated by applying the steady-state single-ring (SR) model to the quasi steady-state infiltration rates obtained with a single-ring pressure infiltrometer (PI) increases confidence in the estimated Ks values. Determining a means to estimate Ks from infiltration data collected with a square infiltrometer allows the use of sources of different shapes. Using numerically simulated infiltration rates for six homogeneous soils ranging in texture from sand to silty clay loam, this investigation suggested an overall good performance of the SR model, with estimated Ks values differing by not more than 25% from the true values f…

An Evaluation of the Single-test Tension Infiltrometer Method for determining the Hydraulic Conductivity of Lateral Capillarity Domain Soils

2004

Abstract The transient and the steady-state single-test tension infiltrometer methods are expected to provide poor hydraulic conductivity K0 estimates in soils situated in the lateral capillarity domain. To evaluate the best strategy for conducting a single-test experiment in these soils, infiltration experiments were numerically simulated for a sandy loam and a clay soil by using two initial pressure heads (−1 and −100 m), four pressure heads at the soil surface (from −0·15 m to −0·01 m), and a maximum duration of 4 h (sandy loam soil) and 12 h (clay soil). The most accurate predictions of K0, differing by a factor of between 0·9 and 1·1 from the true value, were obtained in wet conditions…

Estimating saturated soil hydraulic conductivity by the near steady-state phase of a Beerkan infiltration test

2017

Abstract Single-ring infiltration experiments carried out in the field, such as the Beerkan runs, allow easy and inexpensive characterization of soil hydraulic properties, and specifically saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, by maintaining the functional connection of the sampled soil volume with the surrounding soil. However, a single infiltration experiment is not enough to determine Ks. The simplest way to obtain the necessary additional data is based on the assessment of the soil texture and structure characteristics. In this investigation, a simplified method, named SSBI (Steady version of the Simplified method based on a Beerkan infiltration run), was developed to estimate Ks b…

Testing a new automated single ring infiltrometer for Beerkan infiltration experiments

2015

International audience; The Beerkan method along with BEST algorithms is an alternative technique to conventional laboratory or field measurements for rapid and low-cost estimation of soil hydraulic properties. The Beerkan method is simple to conduct but requires an operator to repeatedly pour known volumes of water through a ring positioned at the soil surface. A cheap infiltrometer equipped with a data acquisition system was recently designed to automate Beerkan infiltration experiments. In this paper, the current prototype of the automated infiltrometer was tested to validate its applicability to the Beerkan infiltration experiment under several experimental circumstances. In addition, t…

Testing an adapted beerkan infiltration run for a hydrologically relevant soil hydraulic characterization

2020

Abstract Literature raises doubts about the usability of infiltrometer methods to characterize soils in a hydrological perspective since these methods often yield excessively high infiltration rates or saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, values. For a loam (AR) and a silty-clay (RO) soil, beerkan infiltration runs were adapted in the perspective to obtain usable soil data to predict rainfall partition into infiltration and rainfall excess. In particular, the initially nearly dry soil was sampled with different water volumes (15 or 30) and heights of water application (low, L, 0.03 m, and high, H, 1.5 m), and the BEST-steady algorithm was applied to determine sorptivity, S, and Ks. Th…

Influence of the pressure head sequence on the soil hydraulic conductivity determined with tension infiltrometer

2005

An increasing and a decreasing sequence of pressure head, h0, values were applied with the tension infiltrometer (TI) to determine the corresponding hydraulic conductivity, K0. The pressure head sequence is expected to influence the K0 results given the hysteretic nature of the hydraulic conductivity relationship. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the selected pressure head sequence on the hydraulic conductivity of a sandy loam soil measured by a multipotential TI experiment. Twenty experiments were carried out by applying h0 values varying between -150 and +5 mm (site A). The h0 values ranged from -150 to -10 mm in another 20 spots (site B). Both wetting and dryi…

An open-source instrumentation package for intensive soil hydraulic characterization

2020

International audience; We present a new open-source and modular instrumentation package composed of up to ten automatic in- filtrometers connected to data acquisition systems for automatic recording of multiple infiltration experiments. The infiltrometers are equipped with differential transducers to monitor water level changes in a Mariotte re- servoir, and, in turn, to quantify water infiltration rates. The data acquisition systems consist of low-cost components and operate on the open-source microcontroller platform Arduino. The devices were tested both in the laboratory and on different urban and agricultural soils in France and India. More specifically, we tested three procedures to t…

Influence of soil surface sealing and hydrophobicity on water infiltration

Nella tesi viene affrontato lo studio dell’impatto dei fenomeni di sealing superficiale e di idrofobicità sui processi di infiltrazione dell’acqua nel suolo. A tal fine vengono utilizzati diversi tipi di esperimenti infiltrometrici che consentono di determinare le modificazioni delle proprietà idrauliche del suolo indotte da questi due fenomeni permettendo di valutare così le loro ripercussioni negative sui processi idrologici. The thesis aims at investigating the effects of soil sealing and hydrophobicity on the water infiltration process. Different field infiltrometric techniques are applied at this end due to their ability to characterize modifications of soil hydraulic properties that d…