Academic literature on the topic 'Tension infiltrometer'

Hunter, A. E., Chau, H. W. and Si, B. C. 2011. Impact of tension infiltrometer disc size on measured soil water repellency index. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 77–81. Accurate measurement of soil water repellency (or hydrophobicity) is important for assessing the hydraulic properties of soils. Water repellency index (RI), a measure of soil water repellency, can be determined using the tension infiltrometer. Little is known about the effects of different infiltrometer disc sizes on measured RI. Furthermore, the impact of method selection in the context of site assessment is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine if the infiltrometer disc size affects the measured RI. Studies were conducted on seven sandy and one clay site in Western Canada in 2008 and 2009. Mini (disc 4.5 cm in diameter) and standard (disc 20 cm in diameter) tension infiltrometers were used to determine RI. There was strong spatial variability in RI values at all sites. Higher RI and greater variance were associated with the smaller disc size due to the smaller zone of influence. Water repellency index values obtained from the mini and standard tension infiltrometers were not statistically different in most cases. We conclude that the mini infiltrometer is an appropriate method for site assessment of RI. The mini infiltrometer RI values were compared with those from the standard infiltrometer, resulting in a 44% accuracy rate with a type I error in 33% of the cases and a type II error in 22% of the cases.

We investigated differences between constant flux and constant potential methods for determining unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in the laboratory. A cheap and robust method was required. The constant flux drip infiltrometer has been used with large intact cores on a wide range of Australian soils. However, the method can be simplified by replacing the drip infiltrometer with a constant potential tension infiltrometer (disc permeameter). We conducted a series of measurements using 9 soil cores to determine whether the measured hydraulic conductivity differed with each method at matric potentials of –10, –20, or –50 mm. Hysteresis effects were also examined because tension infiltrometer measurements are usually made on the adsorption curve of the hydraulic conductivity and matric potential [K(Ψ)] relationship. Drip infiltrometer measurements are often made on the desorption curve. The reproducibility of measurements on a single core was also examined. A large decline in K(Ψ ) was observed on some cores with repeated measurements and this effect was larger than differences between the methods. In the absence of evidence of slaking or dispersion, the suspected cause of the decline in K(Ψ) was clogging of pores from accumulation of microbial biomass and their by-products. The results support the view that K(Ψ) in some soils is a dynamic property. There were consistent differences between the constant flux and constant potential methods on those soil cores not exhibiting a large decline in K(Ψ) (the others were omitted from the method comparison). The tension infiltrometer method indicated greater hydraulic conductivity in soils with well-developed macrostructure when matric potential was greater than –50 mm. Hysteresis effects were significant with both methods and measurements made on desorption and adsorption curves are not considered comparable. Overall, we concluded that the tension infiltrometer method was more suited than the drip method for routine processing of large numbers of samples at low cost.

Abstract We developed an automated miniature constant-head tension infiltrometer that measures very small infiltration rates at millimetre resolution with minimal demands on the operator. The infiltrometer is made of 2.9 mm internal radius glass tube, with an integrated bubbling tower to maintain constant negative head and a porous mesh tip to avoid air-entry. In the bubbling tower, bubble formation and release changes the electrical resistance between two electrodes at the air-inlet. Tests were conducted on repacked sieved sands, sandy loam soil and clay loam soil, packed to a soil bulk density ρd of 1200 kg m-3 or 1400 kg m-3 and tested either air-dried or at a water potential ψ of -50 kPa. The change in water volume in the infiltrometer had a linear relationship with the number of bubbles, allowing bubble rate to be converted to infiltration rate. Sorptivity measured with the infiltrometer was similar between replicates and showed expected differences from soil texture and ρd, varying from 0.15 ± 0.01 (s.e.) mm s-1/2 for 1400 kg m-3 clay loam at ψ = -50 kPa to 0.65 ± 0.06 mm s-1/2 for 1200 kg m-3 air dry sandy loam soil. An array of infiltrometers is currently being developed so many measurements can be taken simultaneously.

AbstractQuantitative data are needed to understand how alternative farming practices affect surface infiltration of water and associated surface soil properties. We used a rainfall simulator, double ring infiltrometer, small single ring infiltrometers, and tension infiltrometers to measure water infiltration for Clarion loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Hapludoll) and for Webster silty clay loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Haplaquoll) soils located on a conventionally-managed and an alternatively-managed farm in central Iowa. Steady-state measurements suggested that infiltration rates were somewhat higher for the alternative farming system. Bulk densities were sometimes lower, and volume of large pores was a little higher for the alternative farming system. Small single rings were more reproducible than rainfall simulators or double ring infiltrometers, and data trends were the same as for rainfall simulators.

A series of tension infiltration measurements have been made to derive saturated hydraulic conductivities and alpha (a) soil parameter values of a heterogeneous desert soil. Four diameter sizes, 8. 7, 20, 28.2, and 40 cm, were used, yielding saturated hydraulic conductivity values of 0.05, 0.09. 0.10, and 0.11 cm/min, respectively. These increasing mean hydraulic conductivity values with increased disc size are the result of improved sampling of the heterogeneous soil. Standard deviation values are 0.04, 0.03, 0.02, and 0.01, respectively. Respective a mean values for increasing disc size are 0.15, 0.13, 0.11, and 0.10, with respective standard deviations of 0.04, 0.03, 0.03, and 0.02. The decreasing trends of both standard deviations with increasing disc size is attributed to sampling larger areas and reducing edge effects. These results imply that for heterogeneous soils, larger diameter discs have an advantage over the standard 8. 7 and 20 cm disc diameters currently being used.

A tension infiltrometer for field use, where both water level changes measurement and tension settings could be automated, was built in-house. Differential pressure transducers were used to automate the water level measurement in the reservoir. The Mariotte bottle was automated by a set of solenoid valves which were connected via tubing to pre-defined depths in the Mariotte bottle. Based on design parameters tested in the laboratory (sensor sensitivity, water reservoir diameter, and bubbling rate) three identical tension infiltrometers connected to a single Mariotte bottle were built. A new reservoir system made of two plexiglass tubes of different diameter slotted in each other was found to reduce the measurement fluctuations caused by the disturbance created to rising bubbles in the reservoir. The new system was tested on a uniform sandy loam profile prepared in the soil bin laboratory and different analytical and numerical data analysis methods were compared. The measured steady state data were used to determine K(h) at different suctions using the analytical method proposed by Reynolds and Elrick (1991). The K(h) points obtained were fitted with the van Genuchten’s equation (van Genuchten, 1980) using the RETC program to calculate the best fit parameters Ks,  and n. These parameters were used as initial estimates of the soil hydraulic parameters in the numerical models HYDRUS 1D and 2D, in which transient cumulative flow data was used to determine the soil hydraulic functions via inverse modelling. The analysis of variance determined significantly higher K(h) values calculated by HYDRUS 1D while the other methods did not differ from each other. Finally, the tension infiltrometer was used in the field on a sandy loam soil to characterise five different tillage treatments (conventional plough, shallow plough, minimum tillage, direct drill, and no-tillage). The effect of wheel traffic was also evaluated by measuring the infiltration rates in the wheel-marks. The fully automated system allowed the measurement of infiltration rates for 8 tensions in triplicate per day with hardly any human intervention apart for refilling the reservoir. The results show that the tillage practices and wheel-traffic have a significant influence on the soil hydraulic function K(h).

Conduziu-se durante dois anos, em um Latossolo Vermelho Amarelo, em Piracicaba-SP (22o41’00" S; 47o39’00" O; 554 m de altitude), um experimento com a cultura da cana-de-açúcar. Foram utilizados 9 tratamentos com 4 repetições, implantados num delineamento em blocos ao acaso. Os tratamentos foram: tr1 - adubação mineral + calagem; tr2, tr3; tr4 e tr5 - doses de lodo de esgoto (respectivamente, 0; 33; 66 e 99 Mg ha-1, no primeiro ano, e 0; 37; 74 e 112 Mg ha-1, no segundo ano); tr6, tr7; tr8 e tr9 - doses de composto de lixo (respectivamente, 0; 20; 40 e 60 Mg ha-1, no primeiro ano, e 0; 24; 48 e 72 Mg ha-1, no segundo ano). Os resíduos foram aplicados manualmente na superfície do solo e incorporados com enxada rotativa, no primeiro ano em área total e no segundo apenas na entrelinha. Foram determinados, em cada parcela, os seguintes parâmetros do solo: composição granulométrica (amostras coletadas antes da implantação do experimento); o conteúdo de carbono orgânico (amostras coletadas em 15 datas durante os dois anos); conteúdo de argila dispersa em água, densidade e porosidade total (amostras coletadas ao final do primeiro e do segundo ano do ciclo da cultura); curva de retenção de água, condutividade hidráulica do solo saturado e condutividade hidráulica relativa (amostras coletadas ao final do primeiro ano do ciclo da cultura); e condutividade hidráulica do solo saturado e não saturado (determinada no campo ao final de dois anos do ciclo da cultura, utilizando o infiltrômetro de tensão). Os resultados obtidos mostraram que houve redução da densidade do solo e aumento da porosidade total com o aumento das doses dos resíduos, para a camada de 0 a 0,15 m de profundidade, no segundo ano de aplicação. Nas parcelas que receberam aplicações de ambos os resíduos, houve aumento da condutividade hidráulica do solo próximo à saturação e redução à medida que o solo se afasta da saturação, para a faixa de potencial mátrico estudada (0 a 1 kPa). O decaimento da condutividade hidráulica relativa, a partir da saturação, foi inicialmente mais acentuado nas parcelas que receberam aplicações de ambos os resíduos, quando comparadas às que não receberam resíduos. Verificou-se também, através de análises de regressão múltipla, que diferenças na retenção de água e no conteúdo de argila dispersa em água, que pela análise de variância convencional seriam atribuídas exclusivamente aos tratamentos, de fato eram parcial ou totalmente devidas a variações não casuais na composição granulométrica do solo. Pelos resultados pôde-se concluir que a aplicação de resíduos urbanos ao solo leva a modificações de propriedades como a densidade e porosidade total do solo, a condutividade hidráulica do solo saturado e a condutividade hidráulica do solo não saturado. Pôde-se concluir também que a casualização dos tratamentos na área experimental não garante a ausência de covariação entre os tratamentos e outras variáveis independentes, as quais podem interferir nas propriedades de interesse (variáveis dependentes) e, conseqüentemente, na eficiência da análise de variância feita de maneira convencional, sendo recomendado a realização de um "ensaio em branco" para verificar a eficiência desta casualização.
An experiment was carried out during two years on a Red Yellow Latosol cropped with sugar-cane, located in the country of Piracicaba-SP (22o41’00" S; 47o39’00" W; 554 m high). Nine treatments with 4 replications were used in a random-block experimental design. The treatments were: tr1 – mineral fertilization + CaCO3; tr2, tr3; tr4 and tr5 - levels of sewage sludge (respectively, 0; 33; 66 and 99 Mg ha-1, in the first year, and 0; 37; 74 and 112 Mg ha-1, in the second year); tr6, tr7; tr8 and tr9 - levels of composed of garbage (respectively, 0; 20; 40 and 60 Mg ha-1, in the first year, and 0; 24; 48 and 72 Mg ha-1, in the second year). The residues were manually applied on the soil surface and incorporated with a rotative plough. In the first year, the incorporation was done on the total area; in the second year only in inter-rows. The following soil parameters were determinated in each plot: particle size distribution (samples collected before the installation of the experiment); organic carbon content (15 samplings along the two years); natural clay content, soil bulk density and total soil porosity (sampling at the end of the first and second years of the growing cycle); water retention curves, saturated hydraulic conductivity and relative unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (samples collected at the end of the first year of the growing cycle); and saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (determined in situ at the end of the first and second years of the growing cycle, using tension infiltrometer). Results show a decrease the soil bulk density and increase of total porosity as the levels of residue application increased, for the 0 to 0.15 m soil layer, in the second year of application. On the plots that received applications of both residues, there was increase of the hydraulic conductivity near the soil saturation and decrease for the 0 to 1 kPa matric potential range. The decline of the relative hydraulic conductivity starting from the saturation, was initially more accentuated in the plots that received applications of both residues as compared with the ones that did not. It was also verified, through analyses of multiple regression, that differences in the water retention and in the natural clay content, that they would be attributed exclusively to the treatments by the conventional variance analysis, they were partially or totally owed to non casual variations in the particle size distribution of the soil. It could be concluded that the soil application of urban residues causes modifications of soil physical properties as saturated and unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity. It could also be concluded that the randomization of the treatments in the experimental area does not guarantee the covariance absence between the treatments and other independent variables, which can interfere in the properties of interest (dependent variables) and, consequently, in the efficiency of the variance analysis done in a conventional way.

Land application of wastes has become increasingly popular, to promote nutrient recycling and environmental protection, with soil functioning as a partial barrier between wastes and groundwater. Dairy shed effluent (DSE), may contain a wide variety of pathogenic micro-organisms, including bacteria (e.g. Salmonella paratyphyi, Escherichia coli. and Campylobacter), protozoa and viruses. Groundwater pathogen contamination resulting from land-applied DSE is drawing more attention with the intensified development of the dairy farm industry in New Zealand. The purpose of this research was to investigate the fate and transport of bacterial indicator-faecal coliform (FC) from land-applied DSE under different irrigation practices via field lysimeter studies, using two water irrigation methods (flood and sprinkler) with contrasting application rates, through the 2005-2006 irrigation season. It was aimed at better understanding, quantifying and modelling of the processes that govern the removal of microbes in intact soil columns, bridging the gap between previous theoretical research and general farm practices, specifically for Templeton soil. This study involved different approaches (leaching experiments, infiltrometer measurements and a dye infiltration study) to understand the processes of transient water flow and bacterial transport; and to extrapolate the relationships between bacterial transport and soil properties (like soil structure, texture), and soil physical status (soil water potential ψ and volumetric water content θ). Factors controlling FC transport are discussed. A contaminant transport model, HYDRUS-1D, was applied to simulate microbial transport through soil on the basis of measured datasets. This study was carried out at Lincoln University’s Centre for Soil and Environmental Quality (CSEQ) lysimeter site. Six lysimeters were employed in two trials. Each trial involved application of DSE, followed by a water irrigation sequence applied in a flux-controlled method. The soil columns were taken from the site of the new Lincoln University Dairy Farm, Lincoln, Canterbury. The soil type is Templeton fine sandy loam (Udic-Ustochrept, coarse loamy, mixed, mesic). Vertical profiles (at four depths) of θ and ψ were measured during leaching experiments. The leaching experiments directly measured concentrations of chemical tracer (Br⁻ or Cl⁻) and FC in drainage. Results showed that bacteria could readily penetrate through 700 mm deep soil columns, when facilitated by water flow. In the first (summer) trial, FC in leachate as high as 1.4×10⁶ cfu 100 mL⁻¹ (similar to the DSE concentration), was detected in one lysimeter that had a higher clay content in the topsoil, immediately after DSE application, and before any water irrigation. This indicates that DSE flowed through preferential flow paths without significant treatment or reduction in concentrations. The highest post-irrigation concentration was 3.4×10³ cfu 100 mL⁻¹ under flood irrigation. Flood irrigation resulted in more bacteria and Br⁻ leaching than spray irrigation. In both trials (summer and autumn) results showed significant differences between irrigation treatments in lysimeters sharing similar drainage class (moderate or moderately rapid). Leaching bacterial concentration was positively correlated with both θ and ψ, and sometimes drainage rate. Greater bacterial leaching was found in the one lysimeter with rapid whole-column effective hydraulic conductivity, Keff, for both flood and spray treatments. Occasionally, the effect of Keff on water movement and bacterial transport overrode the effect of irrigation. The ‘seasonal condition’ of the soil (including variation in initial water content) also influenced bacterial leaching, with less risk of leaching in autumn than in summer. A tension infiltrometer experiment measured hydraulic conductivity of the lysimeters at zero and 40 mm suction. The results showed in most cases a significant correlation between the proportion of bacteria leached and the flow contribution of the macropores. The higher the Ksat, the greater the amount of drainage and bacterial leaching obtained. This research also found that this technique may exclude the activity of some continuous macropores (e.g., cracks) due to the difference of initial wetness which could substantially change the conductivity and result in more serious bacterial leaching in this Templeton soil. A dye infiltration study showed there was great variability in water flow patterns, and most of the flow reaching deeper than 50 cm resulted from macropores, mainly visible cracks. The transient water flow and transport of tracer (Br⁻) and FC were modelled using the HYDRUS-1D software package. The uniform flow van Genuchten model, and the dual-porosity model were used for water flow and the mobile-immobile (MIM) model was used for tracer and FC transport. The hydraulic and solute parameters were optimized during simulation, on the basis of measured datasets from the leaching experiments. There was evidence supporting the presence of macropores, based on the water flow in the post-DSE application stage. The optimised saturated water content (θs) decreased during the post-application process, which could be explained in terms of macropore flow enhanced by irrigation. Moreover, bacterial simulation showed discrepancies in all cases of uniform flow simulations at the very initial stage, indicating that non-equilibrium processes were dominant during those short periods, and suggesting that there were strong dynamic processes involving structure change and subsequently flow paths. It is recommended that management strategies to reduce FC contamination following application of DSE in these soils must aim to decrease preferential flow by adjusting irrigation schemes. Attention needs to be given to a) decreasing irrigation rates at the beginning of each irrigation; b) increasing the number of irrigations, by reducing at the same time the amount of water applied and the irrigation rate at each irrigation; c) applying spray irrigation rather than flood irrigation.

Worldwide there is considerable concern over the effects of human activities on the quantity and quality of freshwater. Measurement of infiltration behaviour will be important for improving freshwater management. This study identifies that New Zealand has a sporadic history of measuring soil water movement attributes on a limited number of soil types, although the current practical demand should be large for management of irrigation, dairy farm effluent disposal, as well as municipal / domestic waste- and storm-water disposal. Previous research has demonstrated that infiltration behaviour is governed by the interplay between numerous mechanisms including hydrophobicity and preferential flow, the latter being an important mechanism of contaminant leaching for many NZ soils. Future characterisation will need to recognise the dynamic nature of these interactions, and be able to reliably characterise the key infiltration mechanisms. Since macropores are responsible for preferential flow, it is critical that infiltration studies use a representative sample of the macropore network. The aim of this project was to study the mechanisms governing the infiltration behaviour of a layered soil in large (50 x 70 cm) monolith lysimeters, where the connectivity of the macropore network remains undisturbed. Four lysimeters of the Gorge silt loam were collected, a structured soil with four distinct layers. On each lysimeter there were four separate infiltration experiments, with water applied under suctions of 0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 kPa by a custom-built tension infiltrometer. Each lysimeter was instrumented with 30 tensiometers, located in arrays at the layer boundaries. There was also a field experiment using ponded dye infiltration to visually define preferential flowpaths. Analysis of dye patterns, temporal variability in soil matric potential (Ψm), and solute breakthrough curves all show that preferential flow is an important infiltration mechanism. Preferential flowpaths were activated when Ψm was above -1.5 kPa. During saturated infiltration, at least 97% of drainage was through the ‘mobile’ pore volume of the lysimeter (θm), estimated among the lysimeters at 5.4 – 8.7 % of the lysimeter volume. Early-time infiltration behaviour did not show the classical square-root of time behaviour, indicating sorptivity was not the governing mechanism. This was consistent across the four lysimeters, and during infiltration under different surface imposed suctions. The most likely mechanism restricting sorptivity is weak hydrophobicity, which appears to restrict infiltration for the first 5 – 10 mm of infiltration. Overall, the Gorge soil’s early-time infiltration behaviour is governed by the dynamic interaction between sorptivity, hydrophobicity, the network of air-filled pores, preferential flow and air encapsulation. Long-time infiltration behaviour was intimately linked to the temporal dynamics of Ψm, which was in turn controlled by preferential flow and soil layer interactions. Preferential flowpaths created strong inter-layer connectivity by allowing an irregular wetting front to reach lower layers within 2 – 15 mm of infiltration. Thereafter, layer interactions dominate infiltration for long-time periods, as Ψm in soil layers with different K(Ψm) relationships self-adjusts to try to maintain a constant Darcy velocity. An important finding was that Ψm rarely attained the value set by the tension infiltrometer during unsaturated infiltration. The results show that ‘true’ steady-state infiltration is unlikely to occur in layered soils. A quasi-steady state was identified once the whole column had fully wet and layer interactions had settled to where Ψm changes occurred in unison through each soil layer. Quasi-steady state was difficult to identify from just the cumulative infiltration curve, but more robustly identified as when infiltration matched drainage, and Ψm measurements showed each layer had a stable hydraulic gradient. I conclude that the in-situ hydraulic conductivity, K(Ψm), of individual soil layers can be accurately and meaningfully determined from lysimeter-scale infiltration experiments. My results show that K(Ψm) is different for each soil layer, and that differences are consistent among the four lysimeters. Under saturated flow the subsoil had the lowest conductivity, and was the restricting layer. Most interestingly this pattern reversed during unsaturated flow. As Ψm decreased below -0.5 to -1 kPa, the subsoil was markedly more conductive, and the topsoil layers became the restricting layers. All four soil layers demonstrate a sharp decline in K(Ψm) as Ψm decreases, with a break in slope at ~ -1 kPa indicating the dual-permeability nature of all layers.