HR: 1340h
AN: H53F-1491    [Abstracts]
TI: A Preliminary Description of the Moisture Moment Method to Describe Unsaturated Soil Hydraulic Properties
AU: Tyner, J S
EM: jtyner@utk.edu
AF: Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, 2506 E. J. Chapman Dr. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-4531, United States
AU: * Cihan, A
EM: acihan@utk.edu
AF: Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, 2506 E. J. Chapman Dr. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-4531, United States
AU: Lee, J
EM: jhlee@utk.edu
AF: Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, 2506 E. J. Chapman Dr. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-4531, United States
AU: Gentry, R W
EM: rgentry@utk.edu
AF: Civil and Environmental Engineering, 311 Conference Center Bldg. Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States
AB: We will present a new experimental procedure to elicit unsaturated soil hydraulic properties from a bench-scale test. A slightly wetted horizontal soil column is hung from two load cells and water is slowly injected into one end. A data logger records the cumulative change of force acting on each load cell due to redistribution of water. A tensiometer present at the inlet measures soil tension throughout the test. Unlike previous horizontal infiltration tests, the proposed technique does not necessitate maintaining a constant water content at the inlet/outlet of the soil column (i.e. no Boltzmann transformation). By analyzing the change in forces on the two load cells, one can describe water retention curve and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity curve. In the future, we plan to test the procedure on a range of soil textures from sand to clay. We will validate our water retention curve predictions by measuring the actual water retention within the column using a computer controlled gamma-ray attenuation system. The new method requires a few hours to more than a day.
DE: 1838 Infiltration
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1875 Vadose zone
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques: modeling
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting