Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1016/j.advwatres.2006.10.006
Titel (primär) Infiltration through series of soil aggregates: Neutron radiography and modeling
Autor Carminati, A.; Kaestner, A.; Hassanein, R.; Ippisch, O.; Vontobel, P.; Flühler, H.
Quelle Advances in Water Resources
Erscheinungsjahr 2007
Department HDG
Band/Volume 30
Heft 5
Seite von 1168
Seite bis 1178
Sprache englisch
Keywords Water flow; Unsaturated conditions; Soil aggregates; Contact region; Neutron radiography; Numerical simulation
Abstract Soils are often structured as fine-porous aggregates separated by large inter-aggregate pores. Under unsaturated conditions, water is mostly stored in the aggregates and water flow depends on the properties of the aggregates as well as on those of the contacts between aggregates. The goal of this study is to model and evaluate the hydraulic properties of the contacts. We used neutron radiography to monitor the infiltration of water through series of aggregates. The flow process was numerically simulated by considering the hydraulically conducting contact area between aggregates as a variable that depends on the capillary pressure. This contact area was evaluated by matching the observed and simulated water flow across aggregates. We determined the conductivity of the contacts assuming that it scales with the contact area. We also measured the equivalent conductivity of series of aggregates. We found that during drainage the hydraulically conducting contact area drastically decreases and the conductivity of the contacts becomes much smaller than that of the aggregates. We also found that the equivalent conductivity of the aggregate series decreases as the conductivity of the contacts. We concluded that the contacts control the flow: they are highly conductive when wet, but act as bottle-necks under drained conditions. The abrupt transition between these two limiting cases indicates that the contact region is more rapidly drained than the aggregate interior. Our findings might be extended to describe water transfer to an evaporating boundary, infiltration and storage of water in unsaturated aggregated soils.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=1698
Carminati, A., Kaestner, A., Hassanein, R., Ippisch, O., Vontobel, P., Flühler, H. (2007):
Infiltration through series of soil aggregates: Neutron radiography and modeling
Adv. Water Resour. 30 (5), 1168 - 1178 10.1016/j.advwatres.2006.10.006