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Assessment of various methods for the determination of hydraulic conductivities of two green roof substrates by steady state infiltration experiments
Author(s) -
Babilis D. J.,
Londra P. A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
irrigation and drainage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1531-0361
pISSN - 1531-0353
DOI - 10.1002/ird.543
Subject(s) - infiltration (hvac) , hydraulic conductivity , steady state (chemistry) , roof , substrate (aquarium) , materials science , mechanics , thermodynamics , geotechnical engineering , soil science , chemistry , environmental science , physics , geology , soil water , engineering , structural engineering , oceanography
The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity as a function of water content, K ( θ) , of two substrates used in green roofs was calculated, using the equations of Jackson (1972), van Genuchten (1980) and Valiantzas (1989). The comparison of the three calculated functions of K ( θ ) with experimental data was done in an indirect way. The steady state water profiles, with constant infiltration rate of 5.5 × 10 −6 m s −1 , were calculated using the three above‐mentioned different K ( θ ) for each substrate. These profiles were compared to the experimental steady state water profiles shaped after the application of a constant rainfall of 5.5 × 10 −6 m s −1 in the laboratory. The comparison between the calculated and the experimental water profiles showed that the above‐mentioned equations can be used for the calculation of K ( θ ) for low‐depth substrates. The proposed method is a simple indirect method to compare the calculated K ( θ ) methods. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.