Determination of hydraulic conductivity and soil moisture retention relations with the EMSL Hydraulic Properties Apparatus
EMSL Project ID
19857
Abstract
Knowledge of hydraulic properties, such as hydraulic conductivity and soil moisture retention, is crucial for understanding flow and contaminant transport in the subsurface. Hydraulic properties are often important input parameters for numerical simulation of flow and transport. Unfortunately, acquisition of these properties is usually time consuming and costly because of the manual labor associated with the currently available laboratory techniques. Another drawback of these techniques is that different packings or cores are used to determine different properties, which might result in inconsistent data sets. Lately, there has been increased interest in automating laboratory techniques to reduce analysis time and improve data consistency. The newly designed fully automated Hydraulic Properties Apparatus (HPA), located in EMSL's Subsurface Flow and Transport Experimental Laboratory, is unique in that it has the capability to determine hydraulic conductivity using both the falling-head and constant-head methods as well as soil moisture retention relations with the multistep method using a single packing or core. The HPA is the only fully automated laboratory apparatus in the world with the ability to apply these three measurement techniques to the same porous medium sample.
Because of its unique character, it is crucial to introduce the HPA to the scientific community in the form of a peer-reviewed manuscript to be published in a highly-rated journal such as the Journal of Contaminant Hydrology or Water Resources Research. Such a paper requires that data sets be developed for at least a standard laboratory Accusand (Schroth et al., 1996) and a Hanford porous medium. The data obtained for the Accusand will be used for comparison against the widely used data obtained by Schroth et al. (1996). The data obtained for the Hanford sample will demonstrate the applicability to actual field sediments.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2006-07-01
End Date
2007-10-01
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Wietsma TW, M Oostrom, MA Covert, TE Queen, and MJ Fayer. 2009. "An automated tool for three types of saturated hydraulic conductivity laboratory measurements." Soil Science Society of America Journal 73(2):466-470.
Wietsma, T.W., M. Oostrom, M., M.A. Covert, T.W. Queen, and M.J. Fayer. 2009. An automated apparatus for constant flux, constant head, and falling head hydraulic conductivity measurements. Soil Science Society of America J. 73: 466-470.