Premium
A One‐Step Wetting Procedure for Determining Both Water Characteristic and Hydraulic Conductivity of a Soil Core
Author(s) -
Ahuja L. R.
Publication year - 1975
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/sssaj1975.03615995003900030020x
Subject(s) - hydraulic conductivity , wetting , inflow , water content , suction , soil water , core (optical fiber) , soil science , pressure head , porosity , geotechnical engineering , mechanics , environmental science , materials science , geology , thermodynamics , composite material , physics
Reasonable simplifications are used to obtain both the suction‐water content and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity relationships from data measured during wetting of a relatively dry soil core through a high‐hydraulic‐resistance porous plate. For soil‐water contents below the bubbling‐pressure value, the two functions are assumed to be of previously known power forms. The resulting similarity is then utilized to obtain these functions from cumulative inflow and wetting‐front position data, using an iterative numerical solution of the ordinary differential equations. Accuracy of the solution is tested on a set of generated data. Tests of the technique as a whole on generated data for one soil and experimental data for another show it to be promising. For water contents above the bubbling‐pressure value, a method is suggested to obtain the two hydrologic properties from cumulative inflow and soil‐water suction at the other end of the core.