Search results for "Soil Hydraulic Conductivity"

Determining hydraulic properties of a loam soil by alternative infiltrometer techniques

2015

Testing infiltrometer techniques to determine soil hydraulic properties is necessary for specific soils. For a loam soil, the water retention and hydraulic conductivity predicted by the BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) procedure of soil hydraulic characterization was compared with data collected by more standard laboratory and field techniques. Six infiltrometer techniques were also compared in terms of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks. BEST yielded water retention values statistically similar to those obtained in the laboratory and Ks values practically coinciding with those determined in the field with the pressure infiltrometer (PI). The unsaturated soil hyd…

DETERMINING THE SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTVITY OF A LOAM SOIL WITH DIFFERENT INFILTROMETER TECHNIQUES

2015

The saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, is one of the most important soil hydraulic properties since it controls many hydrological processes. This hydrodynamic parameter depends on soil texture and structure and it is very difficult to measure. Infiltrometer techniques are becoming very popular to determine Ks in the field but testing alternative approaches is necessary for specific soil types. For a loam soil, the estimated Ks values with six infiltrometer techniques were compared. The so-called BEST procedure of soil hydraulic characterization, the pressure infiltrometer (PI), single head experiments with both the tension infiltrometer (TI) and the mini disk infiltrometer (MDI), th…

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…

Testing the concentric-disk tension infiltrometer for field measurement of soil hydraulic conductivity

2010

Abstract The concentric-disk tension infiltrometer (CDTI) may be used to simultaneously measure the confined ( K c ) and the unconfined ( K u ) soil hydraulic conductivity, but it has received little testing. Comparison between K c and K u can be affected by the calculation approach applied to analyze unconfined steady-state infiltration rates. The objectives of this investigation were to: i) establish the effect of the calculation approach on the estimates of K u ; and ii) compare the K c and K u values measured by the CDTI. A clay soil, a structureless sandy loam soil, and a sandy loam soil with a relatively high gravel content were sampled using a disk of radius equal to 107.5 mm, compri…

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…

Improvement of BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) method for soil hydraulic characterization

Interpreting and modeling soil hydrological processes require the determination of the soil hydraulic characteristic curves, i.e. the relationships between volumetric soil water content, pressure head, and hydraulic conductivity. Using traditional methods to determine these properties is expensive and time consuming. Haverkamp et al. (1996) pioneered a specific method for soil hydraulic characterization known as the “Beerkan method”. An improved version of this methodology, called the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure, was developed by Lassabatère et al. (2006) to simplify soil hydraulic characterization. BEST considers certain analytic formulae for hydraulic c…

An assessment of the Beerkan method for determining the hydraulic properties of a sandy loam soil

2014

Abstract Establishing the ability of the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure to reproduce soil properties is necessary for specific soil types. In this investigation, the BEST predictions for a sandy loam soil were compared with water retention data obtained by a standard laboratory method and with the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K s , obtained by both the Wu et al. (1999) method, applied to the BEST infiltration data, and the Simplified Falling Head (SFH) technique. When the original BEST-slope algorithm with the infiltration constants fixed at β = 1.9 and γ = 0.79 was applied, the agreement between the predicted and the measured retention data was sa…

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…