Abstract
The objective of the present paper is to make clear soil water characteristics of Kanto Loam by presenting data obtained in laboratory. The experimental apparatus originally developed by Richards was used to measure the pressure head and the hydraulic conductivity for two undisturbed test samples collected from Tachikawa and Musashino loam formations at Yatabe near Tsukuba Academic New Town. The results obtained are summarized as follows:
1. The hysteresis effect between the pressure head and the water content is clearly shown for Kanto Loam.
2. Maximum water content for the sorption curve is smaller than that of the desorption curve because a part of pore space is filled with entrapped air. The values of critical saturation for two test samples are 0.93 and 0.95.
3. The water-entry value is nearly equal to a half of the air-entry value.
4. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity depends on the pressure head and the water content.
