Closed-form expressions for water retention and conductivity data

Closed-form expressions for quantifying the unsaturated soil hydraulic properties are widely used in computer programs to model subsurface flow and transport in porous media and to investigate indirect methods for estimating these properties. For example, water retention data, which relate soil-wate...

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Published inGround water Vol. 35; no. 5; pp. 848 - 858
Main Authors Leij, F.J, Russell, W.B, Lesch, S.M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.1997
National Ground Water Association
Ground Water Publishing Company
Subjects
AGUA
AGUA DEL SUELO
Data collection
DEBIT
EAU
EAU DU SOL
EFFECTIVE WATER SATURATION
EQUATIONS
FLOW RATE
GASTO
Groundwater
Groundwater flow
Hydraulic measurements
Hydraulics
MATEMATICAS
MATHEMATICS
MATHEMATIQUE
MATRIC HEAD
Software
SOIL WATER
SOIL WATER PRESSURE HEAD
Soils
UNSATURATED FLOW
UNSATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY
WATER
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Summary:Closed-form expressions for quantifying the unsaturated soil hydraulic properties are widely used in computer programs to model subsurface flow and transport in porous media and to investigate indirect methods for estimating these properties. For example, water retention data, which relate soil-water pressure head (h) and effective water saturation (Se), are frequently used to predict the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (K). However, the suitability of different functions to describe unsaturated hydraulic data has rarely been investigated comprehensively. We attempted to fit 14 retention and 11 conductivity functions to 903 sets of water retention and hydraulic conductivity data measured on soil and rock samples or horizons reported in the unsaturated hydraulic database UNSODA. Some of the best mean values for r2 and MSE for fitting Se (h) data were obtained with the retention functions reported by van Genuchten (1980), Globus (1987), and Hutson and Cass (1987). A function reported by Gardner (1958) could describe K(h) data quite well whereas functions reported by Brooks and Corey (1964) and van Genuchten (1980), which are respectively based on the conductivity models by Burdine and Mualem, yielded a relatively good description of K (Se) data
Bibliography:P33
U10
1997059837
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ArticleID:GWAT848
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ISSN:0017-467X
1745-6584
DOI:10.1111/j.1745-6584.1997.tb00153.x