Soil-Water Distribution under Trickle Source

• Published in: Journal of irrigation and drainage engineering 1993, Vol.119 (3), p.484-500
• Main Authors: Angelakis, Andreas N, Rolston, Dennis E, Kadir, Tariq N, Scott, Verne H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; arena; Biological and medical sciences; Circularity; Clay; Clay (material); Computation; Conductivity; contenido de agua en el suelo; Discharge; Drainage; Drains; equipo de riego; Finite element method; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hydraulics; infiltracion; Infiltration; Initiation; irrigated soils; Irrigation; irrigation equipment; irrigation goutte a goutte; Loams; materiel d' irrigation; Mathematical models; modele mathematique; modelos matematicos; mouvement de l' eau dans le sol; movimiento del agua en el suelo; Physical properties; Physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology of agricultural and forest soils; Q1; riego por goteo; sable; Sand; Sandy soils; Soil science; soil water content; soil water movement; sol irrigue; suelo irrigado; TECHNICAL PAPERS; teneur en eau du sol; textural soil types; tipos texturales de suelos; trickle irrigation; type de sol textural; Water and solute dynamics; Wetting
• ISSN: 0733-9437; 1943-4774
• DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9437(1993)119:3(484)

Soil-water distributions in homogeneous soil profiles of Yolo clay loam and Yolo sand irrigated from a circular source of water were measured at several times after initiation of irrigation. The effect of trickle discharge rates and soil type on the locations of the wetting front and soil-water content distributions were determined. Soil-water potential and hydraulic conductivity, as a function of soil-water content, were also measured. A finite element solution of the two-dimensional transient soil-water equation, the theory of time-dependent, linearized infiltration from a circular source, the effective hemisphere model, and a generalized solution for axially symmetric flow were compared with the experimental results. In general, the computed vertical advances of the wetting front were closely related to those observed for both soils. All of the solutions provided a better prediction of the wetting front positions for the clay-loam soil than for the sandy soil. The calculated and measured horizontal wetting fronts did not agree for large time, especially for the generalized solution. A more pronounced underprediction of the wetting front positions by the effective hemisphere theory occurred compared to those predicted by the linearized and finite element theories. Soil-water content distributions computed by linearized and numerical solutions, agreed reasonably with measured values in both soils.