Field-Obtained Soil Water Characteristic Curves and Hydraulic Conductivity Functions
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 1
Abstract
A test program consisting of two field-scale compacted clay liners (test pads) is conducted to evaluate field-obtained soil water characteristic curves (SWCCs) and hydraulic conductivity functions (k-functions). The test pads are instrumented with volumetric water content and soil water matric potential sensors. Each test pad is subjected to an infiltration cycle, using either a sealed double-ring infiltrometer or a two-stage borehole infiltrometer, followed by a drying cycle. To compare the results from the field-obtained SWCCs and k-functions, laboratory tests are performed on Shelby tube samples. A comparison of the results obtained from field-scale and laboratory techniques illustrates the evidence of hysteresis between the drying and wetting curves. The shapes of the field-obtained and laboratory-obtained SWCCs are similar, although at different volumetric water contents. There is poor agreement between field-obtained and laboratory-obtained k-functions, as reported in other studies; therefore field k-functions are preferential when available.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
ASTM. (2006). “Standard test method for field measurement of hydraulic conductivity using borehole infiltration.” ASTM D6391-06, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2008a). “Standard test methods for determination of the soil water characteristic curve for desorption using a hanging column, pressure extractor, chilled mirror hygrometer, and/or centrifuge.” ASTM D6836-02, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2008b). “Standard test methods for field measurement of infiltration using double-ring infiltrometer with sealed-inner ring.” ASTM D5093-02, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2010). “Standard test method for measurement of hydraulic conductivity of saturated porous materials using a flexible wall permeameter.” ASTM D5084-10, West Conshohocken, PA.
Blanchard, J. (2015). “Evaluation of the equations used to calculate hydraulic conductivity values from two-stage borehole tests.” Undergraduate Honors thesis, Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR.
Chiu, T. F., and Shackelford, C. (1998). “Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of compacted sand kaolin mixtures.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 160–170.
Daniel, D., and Benson, C. (1990). “Water content-density criteria for compacted soil liners.” J. Geotech. Eng., 1811–1830.
Daniel, D., and Trautwein, S. (1986). “Field permeability test for earthen liners.” Proc., In Situ ‘86, ASCE, Reston, VA, 146–160.
Fernando, A. M. (2005). “Nature of soil-water characteristic curve of plastic soils.” J. Geotech Geoenviron. Eng., 654–661.
Fredlund, D., and Rahardjo, H. (1993). Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils, Wiley, New York.
Fredlund, D. G. (1995). Prediction of unsaturated soil functions using the soil-water characteristic curve, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
Fredlund, D. G., and Xing, A. (1994). “Equations for the soil-water characteristic curve.” Can. Geotech. J., 31(4), 521–532.
Fredlund, D. G., Xing, A., and Huang, S. (1994). “Predicting the permeability function for unsaturated soils using the soil-water characteristic curve.” Can. Geotech. J., 31(3), 521–532.
Fredlund, M. D., Sillers, W. S., Fredlund, D. G., and Wilson, G. W. (1996). “Design of a knowledge-based system for unsaturated soil properties.” Proc., Canadian Conf. on Computing in Civil Engineering, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, 659–677.
HYDRUS-1D [Computer software]. PC Progress, Prague, Czech Republic.
Johari, A., and Nejad, A. H. (2015). “Prediction of soil-water characteristic curve using gene expression programming.” IJST Trans. Civil Eng., 39(CI), 143–165.
Klute, A., Campbell, G. S., Jackson, D., Mortiland, M. M., and Nielson, D. R. (1986). Methods of soil analysis. Part I: Physical and mineralogical methods, 2nd Ed., American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science of America, Madison, WI, 810.
Li, A. G., Tham, L. G., Yue, Z. Q., Lee, C. L., and Law, K. T. (2004). “Comparison of field and laboratory soil-water characteristic curves.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1176–1180.
Lin, B., and Cerato, A. B. (2012). “Hysteretic water retention behavior of two highly clayey expansive soils.” Proc., GeoCongress 2012: State of the Art and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering, Oakland, CA, 1205–1212.
Lu, N., and Kaya, M. (2013). “A drying cake method for measuring suction stress characteristic curve, soil-water retention, and hydraulic conductivity function.” Geotech. Test. J., 36(1), 1–2.
Lu, N., Kaya, M., and Godt, W. J. (2014). “Interrelations among the soil-water retention, hydraulic conductivity, and suction-stress characteristic curves.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 04014007.
Lu, N., and Likos, W. J. (2004). Unsaturated soil mechanics, Wiley, New York, 556.
Maldonado, C., and Coffman, R. (2012). “Hydraulic conductivity of environmentally controlled landfill liner test pad.” Proc., GeoCongress 2012: State of the Art and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering, Oakland, CA, 3593–3602.
Meerdink, J. S., Benson, C. H., and Khire, M. V. (1996). “Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of two compacted barrier soils.” J. Geotech. Eng., 565–576.
Mijares, R. G., and Khire, M. V. (2010). “Soil water characteristic curves of compacted clay subjected to multiple wetting and drying cycles.” GeoFlorida 2010: Advances in Analysis, Modeling and Design, ASCE, Reston, VA, 400–409.
Mualem, Y. (1976). “A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media.” Water Resour. Res., 12(3), 513–522.
Nanak, M. J. (2012). “Variability in the hydraulic conductivity of a test pad liner system using different testing techniques.” Master’s thesis, Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR.
Ogorzalek, A. S., Bohnholf, G. L., Shackelford, C. D., Benson, C. H., and Apiwantragoon, P. (2008). “Compaction of field data and water-balance predictions for a capillary barrier covers.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 470–486.
RETC version 6.02 [Computer software]. Univ. of California, Riverside, CA.
STEI (Soil Testing Engineers, Inc.). (1983). STEI two-stage field permeability test, Baton Rouge, LA.
Trautwein, S., and Boutwell, G. (1994). “In situ hydraulic conductivity tests for compacted soil liners and caps.” Hydraulic conductivity and waste contaminant transport in soil, D. Daniel and S. Trautwein, eds., ASTM, Philadelphia, 184–223.
Tzimas, E. (1979). “The measurement of soil water hysteretic relationship on a soil monolith.” J. Soil Sci., 30(3), 529–534.
van Genuchten, M., Leij, F., and Yates, S. (1991). “The RETC code for quantifying the hydraulic functions of unsaturated soils.” Rep. No. EPA/600/2-91/065, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC.
van Genuchten, M. Th. (1980). “A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 892–898.
Wang, X., and Benson, C. (2004). “Leak-free pressure plate extractor for measuring the soil water characteristic curve.” Geotech. Test. J., 27(2), 163–172.
Watson, K. K., Reginato, R. J., and Jackson, R. D. (1975). “Soil water hysteresis in a field soil.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc., 39(2), 242–246.
Wayllace, A., and Lu, N. (2012). “A transient water release and imbibitions method for rapidly measuring wetting and drying soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions.” Geotech. Test. J., 35(1), 103–117.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 1 • January 2018
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 7, 2017
Accepted: Aug 22, 2017
Published online: Oct 30, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Mar 30, 2018
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.