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SOIL PHYSICS

Hood Infiltrometer—A New Type of Tension Infiltrometer

^a Institute of Soil Science and Site Ecology, Univ. of Technology, Dresden, Germany
^b Umwelt-Geräte-Technik, Müncheberg, Germany

^* Corresponding author (kai.schwaerzel{at}forst.tu-dresden.de).

Disk infiltrometers are widely used to determine saturated and near-saturated soil hydraulic conductivity. Previous studies have recommended applying a high-permeability material to the undisturbed soil surface to establish a complete hydraulic bond between the disk and the infiltration surface. Other studies have shown that the use of the contact material affects the infiltration, and hence also the determination of saturated and near-saturated conductivity. In this study, we tested a new type of infiltrometer (that we call a hood infiltrometer), which might overcome these problems. Instead of requiring a disk and contact material, it places a water-filled hood, open side down, onto the soil surface. In this study, repeated hood and disk infiltrometer field tests in conjunction with time-domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements were performed at the same location to compare the performance of the two types of infiltrometer. Furthermore, we extracted undisturbed soil cores to measure the hydraulic functions in the lab. The measured hood and disk data were analyzed using Wooding's solution and by numerical parameter optimization technique using uni- and bimodal hydraulic functions. Running the disk infiltrometer with a contact layer provided saturated hydraulic conductivities that were 10 times smaller than corresponding values measured by the hood infiltrometer. We attributed these differences to smearing, sealing, and clogging of pores, which led to additional flow impedances in the soil surface layer. We were able to show, however, that the combined use of hood and disk infiltrometers in conjunction with TDR enabled hydraulic characterization of the soil from saturation to dry conditions.

Abbreviations: TDR, time-domain reflectometry

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