USE OF SOIL TEXTURE, BULK DENSITY, AND SLOPE OF THE WATER RETENTION CURVE TO PREDICT SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 983-988 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Rawls ◽  
D. Gimenez ◽  
R. Grossman
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Bulk Density ◽  
Soil Texture ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Retention Curve

Modelling the saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils amended with different biochars

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boguslaw Usowicz ◽  
Jerzy Lipiec
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Statistical Model ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Satellite Monitoring ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Retention Curve

<p>Soil organic carbon accumulation is central to the improvement of many soil properties and functions. Biochar use and management could be particularly beneficial for soils with low organic carbon content. It's known that many of soils in the world intrinsically exhibit little ability to retain water and nutrients due to their texture and mineralogy. Also, acquiring biomass for other than agricultural purposes can reduce the organic carbon accumulation and worsens the soil quality. Adding biochar to the soil can affect saturated hydraulic conductivity, water holding capacity and reduce soil erosion and mineral fertilization. It has been shown that saturated hydraulic conductivity depends on type of feedstock and pyrolysis temperatures used for biochar production and application dose but the results are inconsistent. Therefore, in order to explain the different biochar impacts, we propose in this study the use the physical-statistical model of B. Usowicz for predicting the saturated hydraulic conductivity using literature data for various soils amended with biochars (from woodchip, rice straw and dairy manure), pyrolyzed at 300, 500 and 700 °C.  </p><p>Soil with biochar and pores between them can be represented by a pattern (net) of more or less cylindrically interconnected channels with different capillary radius. When we view a porous medium as a net of interconnected capillaries, we can apply a statistical approach for the description of the liquid or gas flow. The soil and biochar phases and their configuration is decisive for pore distribution and the course of the water retention curve in this medium. The physical-statistical model considers the pore space as the capillary net that is represented by parallel and serial connections of hydraulic resistors in the layer and between the layers, respectively. The polynomial distribution was used in this model to determine probability of the occurrence of a given capillary configuration. Capillary size radii and the probability of occurrence of a given capillary configuration were calculated based on the measured water retention curve and saturated water content. It was found a good agreement between measured and the model-predicted hydraulic conductivity data for the biochar amended soils. It indicates that the used variables and model parameters to predict the saturated hydraulic conductivities of the soils were chosen correctly. The different types and pyrolysis temperatures of biochars affected the soil water retention and the equivalent length of the capillaries that characterize the pore tortuosity in the soil.</p><p> </p><p>Acknowledgements. Research was conducted under the project “Water in soil - satellite monitoring and improving the retention using biochar” no. BIOSTRATEG3/345940/7/NCBR/2017 which was financed by Polish National Centre for Research and Development in the framework of “Environment, agriculture and forestry” - BIOSTRATEG strategic R&D programme.</p>

scholarly journals Estimation of Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Granular Soils from Particle Size Parameters

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-Peng Wang ◽  
Pei-Zhi Zhuang ◽  
Ji-Yuan Luan ◽  
Tai-Heng Liu ◽  
Yi-Ran Tan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Grain Size ◽  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Sandy Soils ◽  
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Porosity Variation ◽  
Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity

Estimation of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity could benefit many engineering or research problems such as water flow in the vadose zone, unsaturated seepage and capillary barriers for underground waste isolation. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of a soil is related to its saturated hydraulic conductivity value as well as its water retention behaviour. By following the first author’s previous work, the saturated hydraulic conductivity and water retention curve (WRC) of sandy soils can be estimated from their basic gradation parameters. In this paper, we further suggest the applicable range of the estimation method is for soils with d10 > 0.02mm and Cu < 20, in which d10 is the grain diameter corresponding to 10% passing and Cu is the coefficient of uniformity (Cu=d60d10). The estimation method is also modified to consider the porosity variation effect. Then the proposed method is applied to predict unsaturated hydraulic conductivity properties of different sandy soils and also compared with laboratory and field test results. The comparison shows that the newly developed estimation method, which predicts the relative permeability of unsaturated sands from basic grain size parameters and porosity, generally has a fair agreement with measured data. It also indicates that the air-entry value is mainly relative to the mean grain size and porosity value change from the intrinsic value. The rate of permeability decline with suction is mainly associated with grain size polydispersity.

scholarly journals Simultaneous Determination of Water Retention Curve and Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Substrates Using a Steady-state Laboratory Method

HortScience ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 1106-1112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paraskevi A. Londra
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Steady State ◽  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Pressure Head ◽  
Laboratory Method ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Retention Curve ◽  
Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity

For effective irrigation and fertilization management, the knowledge of substrate hydraulic properties is essential. In this study, a steady-state laboratory method was used to determine simultaneously the water retention curve, θ(h), and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity as a function of volumetric water content, K(θ), and water pressure head, K(h), of five substrates used widely in horticulture. The substrates examined were pure peat, 75/25 peat/perlite, 50/50 peat/perlite, 50/50 coir/perlite, and pure perlite. The experimental retention curve results showed that in the case of peat and its mixtures with perlite, there is a hysteresis between drying and wetting branches of the retention curve. Whereas in the case of coir/perlite and perlite, the phenomenon of hysteresis was less pronounced. The increase of perlite proportion in the peat/perlite mixtures led to a decrease of total porosity and water-holding capacity and an increase of air space. Study of the K(θ) and K(h) experimental data showed that the hysteresis phenomenon of K(θ) was negligible compared with the K(h) data for all substrates examined. Within a narrow range of water pressure head (0 to –70 cm H2O) that occurs between two successive irrigations, a sharp decrease of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity was observed. The comparison of the K(θ) experimental data between the peat-based substrate mixtures and the coir-based substrate mixture showed that for water contents lower than 0.40 m3·m−3, the hydraulic conductivity of the 50/50 coir/perlite mixture was greater. The comparison between experimental water retention curves and predictions using Brooks-Corey and van Genuchten models showed a high correlation (0.992 ≤ R2 ≤ 1) for both models for all substrates examined. On the other hand, in the case of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, the comparison showed a relatively good correlation (0.951 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.981) for the van Genuchten-Mualem model for all substrates used except perlite and a significant deviation (0.436 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.872) for the Brooks-Corey model for all substrates used.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Water Retention Curves by Regression and Machine Learning Methods

2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (3) ◽  
pp. 032088
Author(s):  
Milan Cisty ◽  
Barbora Povazanova
Keyword(s):  
Bulk Density ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Pedotransfer Functions ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Retention Curve ◽  
Vector Machines ◽  
The One

Abstract The paper presents two methods that simplify the estimation of the water retention curves. The case study is evaluated for the soils of Záhorská lowland in the paper. These methods are based on the supposed dependence of the soil water content on the percentage content of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Kopecký grain categories, and the dry bulk density. The representative set of the drying branch of water retention curves was measured using soil samples from the Záhorská lowland region in a laboratory. Particle size distribution and dry bulk density were also determined. In this paper support vector machines and multiple linear regression is compared to estimate the pedotransfer functions that can be used for the prediction of the drying branch of the water retention curve. Both methods were verified on other data set of measured water retention curves than the one which was used for building the models with a close agreement to measured results.

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