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Scaling of Horizontal Infiltration into Homogeneous Soils
Author(s) -
Reichardt K.,
Nielsen D. R.,
Biggar J. W.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1972.03615995003600020014x
Subject(s) - soil water , infiltration (hvac) , thermal diffusivity , scaling , soil science , wetting , homogeneous , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , geology , geotechnical engineering , materials science , mathematics , geometry , physics , thermodynamics , combinatorics , composite material
The horizontal infiltration of water into uniform air‐dry soil columns is examined experimentally and theoretically. The applicability of the similar media concept to the scaling of soils having a wide textural range is studied. The microscopic characteristic length is determined from plots of the distance to the wetting front as a function of the square root of time, in such a way that these plots coalesce into one line when expressed in terms of scaled coordinates. If the soil water diffusivity of one soil is known, values of the microscopic characteristic length determined by the above method can be used to estimate the soil water diffusivity of the other soils.