Experimental study of vertical infiltration into a sand column having a non-uniform initial water content

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1965

OSTI ID:6715946

Johnson, L C

An experimental study of infiltration, including the hysteresis phenomenon, was conducted, on a sand column, which had been saturated and then drained to practical equilibrium with a water table near its base. When water infiltrates such a column, the sand wets up along a different wetting scanning curve at every elevation. The hydraulic conductivity and water capacity functions, kappa and gamma, are thus not uniquely dependent on pressure head or water content, but depend also on vertical position. Measurements of pressure head and water content were made at intervals of time and position. From these data the water content pressure head-position function, H(phi, zeta), was constructed for 2-flow regimes, a series of progressively increased steady state flows and an unsteady flow during ponded infiltration. The water capacity, gamma(phi, zeta), was obtained by differentation of the H(phi, zeta) function, and the hydraulic conductivity, kappa(phi, zeta), was derived from the steady state flow data. Two separate solutions of the flow equation were computed, using the different sets of water capacity values.

• OSTI ID: 6715946
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
ENGINEERING
FLUID FLOW
FLUID MECHANICS
GEOLOGY
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYSTERESIS
MECHANICS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
SAND
STEADY FLOW
UNSTEADY FLOW
WATER