Abstract
Hydrogeological parameters of field soil porous media are distributed with large heterogeneity. Evaluation of physical heterogeneity effects on soil water flow is important to understand basic flow characteristics of field soil. In this study, two types of water infiltration experiments were applied to examine water flow under the heterogeneous distribution of hydraulic conductivities. Time series of soil water change was measured by time domain reflectometry (TDR). In the TDR system, the small printed circuit board probes (PCBP) were used as wage guide. To evaluate soil water distribution change in the experimental sand box, the simple image analysis of digital photo of the experiments was proposed and tested. According to the TDR measurement, probes show clear response for ponding timing in the stepwise ponding experiment. Once soils were filled with water, they kept water in the continuous infiltration experiment using rain generator. The order of breakthrough match sequential photo of the continuous infiltration experiment. Preferential flow was clearly observed in the both experiments.
