Observation and modeling on irregular purple soil water infiltration process

• Published in: Journal of mountain science 2017-06, Vol.14 (6), p.1076-1085
• Main Authors: Cheng, Dong-bing, Dong, Lin-yao, Qian, Feng, Sun, Bei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer simulation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecology; Environment; Geography; Green-Ampt model; Green-Ampt模型; Groundwater; Hydraulics; Infiltration; Infiltration rate; Methods; Modelling; Moisture content; Profiles; Simulation; Soil; Soil infiltration; Soil water; Surface layers; Surface water; Surface-groundwater relations; Texture; Transport; Water infiltration; Wetting front; 三角形; 传输速度; 入渗过程; 湿润锋; 紫色土; 观测; 过程模拟
• ISSN: 1672-6316; 1993-0321; 1008-2786
• DOI: 10.1007/s11629-015-3737-x

The infiltration process is a critical link between surface water and groundwater. In this research, a specific device to observe infiltration processes in homogeneous and heterogeneous soils with triangular and inverted triangular profiles was designed, and the Green-Ampt model was employed for the process simulation. The results indicate that（1） the wetting front in coarse texture soils transports faster than in fine texture soils;（2） for the homogeneous case, the wetting front in triangularshaped soils transports faster than the inverted triangular type, but the triangular-shaped soils show a lower infiltration rate;（3） in the initial step, the wetting front in triangular-shaped soils shows higher transport speed, but depicts lower speed with increase in the time;（4） both the wetting front and infiltration rate show a significant exponential relation with the time. From these findings, an empirical model was developed which agrees well with the observed data and provides a useful method for this field of soil research.