Search results for "Saturated soil hydraulic conductivity"

Laboratory evaluation of falling-head infiltration for saturated soil hydraulic conductivity determination

2020

Falling-head one-dimensional infiltration procedures, such as the simplified falling-head (SFH) technique, yield estimates of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, with parsimonious and rapid experiments. Factors that can influence determination of Ks by the SFH technique were tested in the laboratory on three repacked soils differing by particle diameter ranges (0-2000, 0- 105 and 105-2000 mm, respectively). Using the theoretically calculated depth of ponding on the infiltration surface, D, instead of the measured one had a small impact on the Ks calculations (means differing by a factor of 1.1-1.2, depending on the soil). For the finest soil, Ks decreased by 3.1 times as D increased …

A Plot-scale uncertainty analysis of saturated hydraulic conductivity of a clay soil

2021

Abstract Simulating soil hydrological processes at the plot or field scale requires using spatially representative values of the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks. Sampling campaigns should yield a reliable mean of Ks with a sustainable workload since measuring Ks at many points is challenging. Uncertainty analysis can be used to determine the lowest number of measurements that yield a mean Ks value with a specified accuracy level. Potential and limitations of this analysis were tested in this investigation for different extents of the sampled area and sampling densities. A clay soil was sampled intensively on two plots (plot area = 44 m2), two dates and using both small (0.15 m in …

Effect of laboratory procedures on the integrity of a sandy-loam soil sample for bi-directional measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity

2011

Practical and validated methods to measure anisotropy of saturated, Ks, or field-saturated, Kfs, soil hydraulic conductivity on a single soil sample are still lacking. The objective of this investigation was to test factors affecting anisotropy measured in a sandy-loam soil by the constant-head laboratory permeameter and the modified cube method. The ratio, RK, between the conductivity results obtained with a long (6 h) and a short (0.5 h) duration run varied from a minimum of 0.29 to a maximum of 0.88 with the considered experimental procedure, differing by both the employed constant-head device (Mariotte bottle, siphon) and the initial soil water content (unsaturated, saturated). Maximum …

Ring diameter effects on determination of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity of different loam soils

2017

Abstract Establishing ring diameter effects on the field-saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Kfs, determined with ponding infiltrometer methods can help to find a compromise between the need to sample a large area with an individual measurement and the impracticality of using large rings in the field. Five ring sizes (diameter, D = 5.5, 10.9, 16.0, 27.8 and 31.8 cm) were used to determine Kfs by the simplified falling head (SFH) technique in four loamy soils with different salinity (electrical conductivity of saturated extract, ECe = 0.9–29.4 dS/m) and sodicity (exchangeable sodium percentage, ESP = 2.7–81.3%) levels. According to USDA classification, two soils were non-saline, non-sodic…

Evaluation of Green Roof Ageing Effects on Substrate Hydraulic Characteristics

2020

The vegetated substrate of green roofs may undergo various chemical and physical changes with time. Minidisk infiltrometer (MDI) tests were conducted to assess the short-term variations of the near-saturated hydraulic conductivity, K0, in the extensive green roof test plot established at the University of Palermo. Sampling was repeated four times: before planting (Age 0) and then after four months (Age 1), seven months (Age 2) and ten months (Age 3). A total of 144 infiltration tests were conducted at two pressure heads, h0 = −3 cm and h0 = −0.5 cm and infiltration data analysed by the Zhang (Soil Science Society of America Journal 61(4):1024–1030, 1997) model. Both K-3 and K-0.5 underwent …

A field assessment of the Simplified Falling Head technique to measure the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity

2012

Abstract The Simplified Falling Head (SFH) technique to measure field saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Kfs, has received little testing or comparison with other techniques. Different experiments were carried out to i) determine the effect of ring size on the measured conductivity; ii) compare the SFH and Pressure Infiltrometer (PI) techniques in a clay loam soil; and iii) evaluate the approach used in the SFH methodology to estimate the α* parameter. Sampling a relatively large number of sites allowed to detect statistically significant relationships between the Kfs values obtained with rings differing in diameter (0.15 and 0.30 m, respectively). The ring size effect was substantial (…

INVESTIGATIONS ON INFILTRATION METHODS FOR AN IMPROVED SOIL HYDRAULIC CHARACTERIZATION

2020

Testing laboratory methods to determine the anisotropy of saturated hydraulic conductivity in a sandy–loam soil

2009

Abstract Anisotropy, a (the log of the ratio of horizontal to vertical conductivity, log 10 ( K h / K v )), of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K s , affects transport processes in soil but is not routinely measured, probably because practical and validated methods are lacking. The objective of this investigation was to determine the effects of different constant-head laboratory and sampling procedures on anisotropy of saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements. The sequence of K s measurements was varied (vertical conductivity, K v , first, then horizontal, K h , second and vice versa) for an experimental set-up considering five variables: 1) water ponding type (Mariotte or siphon…

Comparing Beerkan infiltration tests with rainfall simulation experiments for hydraulic characterization of a sandy-loam soil

2017

[EN] Saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K-s, data collected by ponding infiltrometer methods and usual experimental procedures could be unusable for interpreting field hydrological processes and particularly rainfall infiltration. The K-s values determined by an infiltrometer experiment carried out by applying water at a relatively large distance from the soil surface could however be more appropriate to explain surface runoff generation phenomena during intense rainfall events. In this study, a link between rainfall simulation and ponding infiltrometer experiments was established for a sandy-loam soil. The height of water pouring for the infiltrometer run was chosen, establishing a sim…

Run duration effects on the hydrodynamic properties of a loam soil estimated by steady-state infiltration methods

2020

Steady-state methods for the analysis of single-ring infiltration data are commonly applied. However, the duration of an infiltrometer experiment is often established quite subjectively based on the assumption that in general infiltration stabilizes rather quickly in the field. For a loam soil, the effect of the duration of a beerkan run on sorptivity, S, and saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks, was tested by using the BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters)-steady method and SSBI (Steady version of the Simplified method based on a Beerkan Infiltration run) method for data analysis. The standard experiment, based on a total of 15 water volumes each establishing an initial pon…