Estimation of Unsaturated hydraulic parameters by In-situ technique

In-situ determination of fundamental hydraulic parameters like variably saturated hydraulic conductivity (K(FS)) and the matric flux potential (Φ(m)) provides a foundation from which several other unsaturated soil parameters can be estimated, namely the Alpha (α*) parameter. This Alpha parameter is the one of the components of 3D unsaturated flow in vadose zone and its value is the measure of the capillary component of unsaturated flow pattern. Here an in-situ technique, Pressure Infiltrometer is introduced to record the steady flow rate applying a constant positive head on an unsaturated soil surface. The aim of this paper is to check the shape factor of 3D flow geometry and to find out its sensitivity on other unsaturated hydraulic parameters and to find out the influence of Alpha parameters on the results of the in-situ estimation of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity.