Experiment on water percolation in a lysimeter

Computer aided automatic measurement and data analysis

Abstract

To investigate the unsaturated water percolation property, the soil temperature at more than ten levels was measured automatically. Warm/Cold pure water was applied on a lysimeter as an artificial rainfall once a week. The computer controlled system to measure the soil temperature and other physical parameters has been developed. Furthermore, the timesaving data analysis system, including file transmission between the terminal computer and host one, usage of a convenient computer graphic software, and so on, has been adopted. Comparing the measured time variations of soil temperature with the calculated ones given by a simple heat transfer model, the percolated depth of the rain water was evaluated.