Surface-positioned double-ring to improve traditional infiltrometer for measuring soil infiltration
Jing Zhang
A B C and Shaopeng Li A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou 450045, PR China.
B College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, PR China.
C Corresponding author. Email: zhangjingde2011@126.com
Soil Research 58(3) 314-321 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR19260
Submitted: 23 September 2019 Accepted: 17 December 2019 Published: 30 January 2020
Abstract
The installation of a traditional double-ring infiltrometer (DRI) into soil is difficult and time consuming. It results in reduced accuracy because of soil disturbance and water leakage along the gaps between the ring wall and the soil. In this study, a surface-positioned DRI (SPDRI) was suggested to improve measurement accuracy and convenience of the DRI. Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate performance of the method in terms of the influence of the lateral flow of water on the accuracy of infiltration rate, average vertical wetting front depth and saturated hydraulic conductivity. A cylindrical soil column was used to simulate the ideal ring infiltrometer (IRI) of the one-dimensional vertical infiltration process for comparison purposes. Experimental results indicated that the infiltration rates measured by the SPDRI and IRI were nearly identical, with maximum relative error (RE) of 18.75%. The vertical wetting front depth of the SPDRI was nearly identical to that of the IRI, with proportional coefficients of 0.97 and R2 > 0.95. Comparison of the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity with those from IRI indicated that the REs were 7.05–10.63% for the SPDRI. Experimental results demonstrated that the SPDRI could improve the measurement accuracy and facilitate the soil water infiltration measurement process.
Additional keywords: ideal ring infiltrometer, measurement error, soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, soil physics, SPDRI.
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