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Infiltration Process
Measurement of infiltration
1. The pounding of the infiltrometer into the ground deforms the soil causing
cracks and increasing the measured infiltration capacity.
2. Natural rainfall reaches terminal velocity. Also natural droplet sizes differ with
different types of storms. Pouring water from a measuring cup however loses
this nature.
3. With single ring infiltrometers, water spreads laterally as well as vertically and
the analysis is more difficult.
ESTIMATION INFILTRATION
• 1. Horton infiltration:
– In general, for a given constant storm, infiltration rates tend to
decrease with time.
– Horton observed these facts and concluded that infiltration
begins at some rate fo maximum value and exponentially decreases
until it reaches a constant fc.
– He proposed the following infiltration equation where rainfall
intensity i greater than fp at all times.
…Horton infiltration
• Note that infiltration takes place at capacity rates only when the
intensity of rainfall i equals or exceeds fp
– f =fp when i ≥ fp,
– but when i < fp, f < fp and f = i.
• The cumulative infiltration equation F(t) for the Horton method
is found from the relationship :
Example 1
• The ᶲ -index method gives better estimate when losses is calculated after
heavy rainfall and the soil profile is saturated.
• The method assumes a constant average infiltration rate during a storm,
although in actual practice the infiltration will be varying with time.
W - index
• This index is considered as an improvement over ɸ-
index in the sense that surface storage and
interception losses are considered in its computation. It
is defined as the average rate of infiltration which is
equal to the rate of precipitation minus surface runoff
and retention during time t and is expressed as:
W – index = (P – R – Ia) / te
Where, P = total storm precipitation (cm)
R = total storm runoff (cm)
I a = initial losses (cm)
Te = elapsed time period (hr)
• The w-index is more accurate than the φ-index because
it subtracts initial losses, but during heavy and longer
storms, initial losses is approximately zero then w –
index and ɸ-index become the same.