Relationship between Anisotropy in Soil Hydraulic Conductivity and Saturation
Journal Article
·
· Vadose Zone Journal
Anisotropy in unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is saturation-dependent. Accurate characterization of soil anisotropy is very important in simulating flow and contaminant (e.g., radioactive nuclides in Hanford) transport. A recently developed tensorial connectivity-tortuosity (TCT) concept describes the hydraulic conductivity tensor of the unsaturated anisotropic soils as the product of a scalar variable, the symmetric connectivity tortuosity tensor, and the hydraulic conductivity tensor at saturation. In this study, the TCT model is used to quantify soil anisotropy in unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. The TCT model can describe different types of soil anisotropy; e.g., the anisotropy coefficient, C, can be monotonically increase or decrease with saturation and can vary from greater than unity to less than unity and vice versa. Soil anisotropy is independent of soil water retention properties and can be characterized by the ratio of the saturated hydraulic conductivities and the difference of the tortuosity-connectivity coefficients in two directions. ln(C) is linearly proportional to ln(Se) with Se being the effective saturation. The log-linear relationship between C and Se allows the saturation-dependent anisotropy to be determined using linear regression with the measurements of the directional hydraulic conductivities at a minimum of two water content levels, of which one may be at full saturation. The model was tested using measurements of directional hydraulic conductivities.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1136611
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA--98575
- Journal Information:
- Vadose Zone Journal, Journal Name: Vadose Zone Journal Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 13; ISSN 1539-1663
- Publisher:
- Soil Science Society of America
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
A Tensorial Connectivity–Tortuosity Concept to Describe the Unsaturated Hydraulic Properties of Anisotropic Soils
Saturation-Dependent Hydraulic Conductivity Anisotropy for Multifluid Systems in Porous Media
The relative connectivity-tortuosity tensor for conduction of water in anisotropic unsaturated soils
Journal Article
·
Fri Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2003
· Vadose Zone Journal, 2(3):313-321
·
OSTI ID:15006802
Saturation-Dependent Hydraulic Conductivity Anisotropy for Multifluid Systems in Porous Media
Journal Article
·
Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2007
· Vadose Zone Journal, 6(4):925-934
·
OSTI ID:920970
The relative connectivity-tortuosity tensor for conduction of water in anisotropic unsaturated soils
Journal Article
·
Sun Oct 31 23:00:00 EST 2004
· Vadose Zone Journal, 3(4):1471-1478
·
OSTI ID:15010679