1. Hydraulic characterization and modeling of hydrophobic substrates.
- Author
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Moret-Fernández, D. and Latorre, B.
- Subjects
- *
HYDRAULIC conductivity , *DRAINAGE , *SOIL permeability , *HYDRAULIC models , *SOIL physics , *FOREST litter , *WATER repellents - Abstract
• We present the SWRIM model for simulating infiltration curves in SWR substrates. • SWRIM represents the pore system as a set of disconnected pathways with dual K. • SWRIM estimates the K d distribution and the percentage of water-conducting pores. • SWRIM was validated on different substrates of 1.0 and 2.5 cm height. • Robust fits were obtained between experimental and modeled infiltration curves. The hydraulic characterization of hydrophobic substrates, which strongly depends on the water content, is an understudied topic in the field of soil physics. Based on laboratory experiments, this work presents a physically-based model, denoted as Soil Water Repellency Infiltration Model (SWRIM), to describe the double-slope cumulative infiltration curves commonly observed in hydrophobic substrates, whose behavior is conditioned by the dual hydraulic behavior (under dry and saturated conditions) of the water repellency materials. The experimental setup consists of 1D infiltration tests on hydrophobic substrates and tension of 0 cm, following by a free drainage. The SWRIM model assumes that water flow in the hydrophobic substrate is gravity driven, representing the pore system as a set of disconnected pathways or capillaries with dual behavior. Each capillary is governed by two hydraulic conductivity values corresponding to dry or partially saturated and saturated conditions, K d and K s respectively. During infiltration, water flow within each pathway is regulated by K d , but once the pathways are filled and the substrate is fully saturated, the water flow is governed by K s , whose value is directly measured from the slope of the drainage curve. In order to incorporate the variability of the pore system, unimodal and bimodal probability distributions of K d values were considered. The application of the SWRIM model allowed determining the distribution of K d and the percentage of water-conducting pores, δ , of the hydrophobic layer. Additional determinations of the soil hydraulic conductivity, K , and sorptivity under water repellent conditions were also obtained from the inverse analysis of the initial times of the infiltration test. The proposed model was validated on experimental soil columns of 5 cm internal diameter and 1.0 and 2.5 cm height filled with pine forest organic material, Pine, rosemary leaf litter, RS, and, blond peat, Peat. Overall, convex-to-linear curves with a monotonously increasing infiltration, typical of hydrophobic substrates, were obtained. SWRIM model allowed robust fits of the infiltration curves, showing in all cases a distribution of K d with a bimodal shape. Pine and Peat presented the largest values of δ. The estimated average K d was within the same order of magnitude as K values. Overall, the results showed that the proposed physically-based model allows to satisfactory describe and characterize the dynamic hydraulic behavior of hydrophobic soil substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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