FIELD MEASUREMENT OF FIELD SATURATED AND UNSATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY USING SOIL MOISTURE PROFILE

Abstract

A new in-situ permeability test of determining field-saturated hydraulic conductivity k_fs and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity k_unsat in the near surface of unsaturated sandy soils is proposed. A ponded singlering infiltrometer technique, such as the Guelph Pressure Infiltrometer method was performed to determine k_fs. The Instantaneous Profile method with the unit hydraulic gradient assumption was applied to determine k_unsat during drainage period. The advantage of our proposed method is to measure k_fs and k_unsat continuously by simple permeability tests with soil moisture profile. The utility of our proposed method is demonstrated by using a numerical model and experimental data of unsaturated dune sands.