https://doi.org/10.4081/jae.2019.1003

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

Vol. 51 No. 1 (2020)
Published: 8 October 2019
Laboratory investigation, saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, falling-head one-dimensional infiltration, simplified falling-head technique.
Abstract Views: 971
PDF: 477
HTML: 129
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Paola Concialdi
Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università di Palermo, Italy.
Vincenzo Bagarello
vincenzo.bagarello@unipa.it
Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università di Palermo, Italy.
Vincenzo Alagna
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agro-Alimentari, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Italy.
Massimo Iovino
Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università di Palermo, Italy.

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 from 40 to 135 mm but D did not affect Ks for the coarsest soil, yielding in general the highest Ks values. The abrupt increase of the infiltration rate close to the end of the run did not influence appreciably Ks calculations since it determined an increase in Ks by a mean factor never exceeding 1.1. The most frequent result of the developed procedure for estimating the α* parameter was failure of the experiment although the valid α* calculations were plausible, being higher for the coarse textured soil (17 m–1) than the finer soils (9.2-9.3 m–1). The depth of the wetting front at the end of the run was 1.1-1.2 times deeper than that calculated theoretically before the run, depending on the soil. In conclusion, the method used to determine D should not affect very much Ks determination but larger D values can yield smaller Ks values in fine-textured soils. Air escapes from the sampled soil volume when almost all water had infiltrated but this circumstance does not have a great impact on calculation of Ks. A falling-head one-dimensional ponded infiltration process is not recommended to estimate α*. The theoretical depth of the wetting front can approximately be predicted before the run. The SFH technique appears a rather robust method to simply and rapidly determine Ks.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Angulo-Jaramillo R, Bagarello V, Iovino M, Lassabatere L, 2016. Infiltration Measurements for Soil Hydraulic Characterization. Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, ISBN 978-3-319-31786-1, 978-3-319-31788-5 (eBook), doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-31788-5, 386 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31788-5
Assouline S, Narkis K, 2011. Effects of long-term irrigation with treated wastewater on the hydraulic properties of a clayey soil. Water Resour. Res. 47, W08530, 12 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR010498
Bagarello V, Iovino M, Elrick DE, 2004. A simplified falling-head technique for rapid determination of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 68, 66-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2004.6600
Bagarello V, Elrick DE, Iovino M, Sgroi A, 2006. A laboratory analysis of falling head infiltration procedures for estimating the hydraulic conductivity of soils. Geoderma 135, 322-334. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2005.12.008
Biddoccu M, Ferraris S, Opsi F, Cavallo E, 2016. Long-term monitoring of soil management effects on runoff and soil erosion in sloping vineyards in Alto Monferrato (North–West Italy). Soil Till. Res. 155, 176-189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2015.07.005
Biddoccu M, Ferraris S, Pitacco A, Cavallo E, 2017. Temporal variability of soil management effects on soil hydrological properties, runoff and erosion at the field scale in a hillslope vineyard, North-West Italy. Soil Till. Res. 165, 46-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2016.07.017
Di Prima S, Concialdi P, Lassabatere L, Angulo-Jaramillo R, Pirastru M, Cerdà A, Keesstra S, 2018. Laboratory testing of Beerkan infiltration experiments for assessing the role of soil sealing on water infiltration. Catena 167, 373-384. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2018.05.013
Elrick DE, Reynolds WD, 1992. Methods of analyzing constant-head well permeameter data. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 56, 320-323. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1992.03615995005600010052x
Elrick DE, Angulo-Jaramillo R, Fallow DJ, Reynolds WD, Parkin GW, 2002. Analysis of infiltration under constant head and falling head conditions. p.47-53. In: Raats, PAC. et al. (Eds.), Environmental mechanics: Water, mass and energy transfer in the biosphere, Geophysical Monograph Series, Vol. 129, AGU, Washington, D.C. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/129GM04
Gardner WR, 1958. Some steady-state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with application to evaporation from a water table. Soil Sci. 85, 228-232. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/00010694-195804000-00006
Gee GW, Bauder JW, 1986. Particle-size analysis. p.383-411. In: Klute A, (Ed.), Methods of soil analysis. Part 1. Physical and mineralogical methods. 2nd ed. Agronomy no.9, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI.
Glantz SA, 2012. Primer of Biostatistics. Seventh edition, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Green WH, Ampt GA, 1911. Studies in soil physics. I. The flow of air and water through soils. J. Agr. Sci., 4: 1-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021859600001441
Keller T, Sutter JA, Nissen K, Rydberg T, 2012. Using field measurement of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity to detect low-yielding zones in three Swedish fields. Soil Till. Res. 124, 68-77. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2012.05.002
Kovář S, Mašek J, Novák P, 2017. Comparison of tillage systems in terms of water infiltration into the soil during the autumn season. Agronomy Research 15(4), 1629-1635, https://doi.org/10.15159/AR.17.015.
Moutier M, Shainberg I, Levy GJ, 1998. Hydraulic gradient, aging, and water quality effects on hydraulic conductivity of a Vertisol. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 62, 1488-1496. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1998.03615995006200060003x
Philip JR, 1958. The theory of infiltration, 7. Soil Sci. 85, 278-286. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/00010694-195805000-00008
Philip JR, 1969. Theory of infiltration. Adv. Hydrosci. 5, 215-296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-4831-9936-8.50010-6
Philip JR, 1992. Falling head ponded infiltration. Water Resour. Res. 28, 2147-2148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/92WR00704
Philip JR, 1993. Approximate analysis of falling-head lined borehole permeameter. Water Resour. Res. 29(11), 3763-3768. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/93WR01688
Preti F, Guastini E, Penna D, Dani A, Cassiani G, Boaga J, Deiana R, Romano N, Nasta P, Palladino M, Errico A, Giambastiani Y, Trucchi P, Tarolli P, 2018. Conceptualization of water flow pathways in agricultural terraced landscapes. Land Degrad. Dev. 29, 651-662, DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2764. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2764
Reynolds WD, 2013. An assessment of borehole infiltration analyses for measuring field-saturated hydraulic conductivity in the vadose zone. Eng. Geol. 159, 119-130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2013.02.006
Reynolds WD, Elrick DE, 1990. Ponded infiltration from a single ring: I. Analysis of steady flow. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 54, 1233-1241. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1990.03615995005400050006x
Reynolds WD, Lewis JK, 2012. A drive point application of the Guelph Permeameter method for coarse-textured soils. Geoderma 187-188, 59-66. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2012.04.004
Wang Z, Feyen, J, van Genuchten MTh, Nielsen DR, 1998. Air entrapment effects on infiltration rate and flow instability. Water Resour. Res. 34(2), 213-222. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/97WR02804

How to Cite

Concialdi, P. (2019) “Laboratory evaluation of falling-head infiltration for saturated soil hydraulic conductivity determination”, Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 51(1), pp. 27–35. doi: 10.4081/jae.2019.1003.

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.


Similar Articles

<< < 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.