Estimation of grain size data from the hydraulic conductivity

투수계수로부터 입도분포 자료의 추정

  • Nkomozepi, Temba (Department of Agricultural Engineering, Kyungpook National University) ;
  • Chung, Sang-Ok (Department of Agricultural Engineering, Kyungpook National University)
  • Received : 2011.11.21
  • Accepted : 2011.12.17
  • Published : 2011.12.31

Abstract

The relationship between hydrologic processes and scale is one of the more complex issues in surface water hydrology. Disturbances that change vegetation and/or soil properties have been known to subsequently alter the landscape. The primary objective of this study was to estimate the grain size of soils with different properties from the hydraulic conductivity using pedotransfer functions. The double ring infiltrometer method was used to measure the vertical hydraulic conductivity of three soils under different soil planar surface treatments. Seven selected pedotransfer functions were used to estimate percentile diameters and the reduction in infiltration caused by compaction was misconstrued as caused by changes in percentile diameter. Results showed that compaction on the sandy loamy foot paths reduced the hydraulic conductivity by about 50%. The study showed that perceptual models of infiltration processes and appreciation of scale problems in modeling are far more sophisticated than normally presented in texts. Hydraulic measurement methods are still relevant and will provide significant information of grain size of the soils.

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