An expedient method for estimating soil-water characteristic curves

for Brazilian and Indian soils

Chandrakala T
MTGT2007
Geotechnical Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
NIT Andhra Pradesh
 INTRODUCTION
 SWCC(Soil water characteristic curve) is the relation between soil or water
matric potential and volumetric water content

Figure 1.1 SWRC’s for 3 different types

of textural soils
Reference: https://www.google.com/search?
q=SWRC
%E2%80%99s+for+3+different+types+of+te
xtural+soils
Introduction: Applications of SWCC

Reference: Leong et al. (2010).

 INTRODUCTION
 Unsaturated soil mechanics is the combination of different disciplines
such as agriculture, geotechnical engineering, geo environmental
engineering etc.
 The disadvantage of unsaturated soil mechanics is time-consuming and
costly tests to determine engineering properties of unsaturated soils.
 There are lot of states in India like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka,
Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan facing water crisis since 2017.
 So proper planning is needed for water resource management for which
the knowledge of hydraulic properties is necessary which are represented
by relationship between volumetric soil water content (θ) and soil water
pressure head (h).
 INTRODUCTION
 There are lot of states in India like Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Karnataka, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan facing water
crisis since 2017.
 So proper planning is needed for water resource management for
which the knowledge of hydraulic properties is necessary which are
represented by relationship between volumetric soil water content
(θ) and soil water pressure head (h).
 Scope of the study
 The various applications of water retention curve are soil water storage and
supply of water to plants.
 Since the tests to determine engineering properties in unsaturated soils is
costly, PTF equations are used to estimate SWCC indirectly.
 Estimating SWCC using PTF equations need a lot of parameters which is
time consuming and complex.
 The simplified indirect method proposed in this study uses less parameters,
simple, less time consuming and economical
 Background
Methods to determine SWCC
 Direct method
 Indirect method
(1)Statistical methods
(2) Correlation of soil properties with the fitting parameters
(3) Physico-empirical model
(4) Artificial intelligence methods

Types of Pedo transfer functions(PTF)

1)Point PTF
2)Parametric PTF
 Background

Ref: https://www.google.com/search?q=soil+map

Fig 1 Indian soil map states for which PTF equations are
developed
Fig 2 Brazil with states for
which point PTF equations are
available
Ref: https://www.google.com/search?q=brazil+map
Table 2: Places in India for which PTF equations are
developed
PTF equations already developed To be developed
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, U.P, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal
Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Pradesh, Odisha, North eastern states(Alluvial
Rajasthan- ANN and KNN networks Soils)
north-western part of Gujarat with some parts
of Haryana and Punjab at its northeast and
Table and
east, Indo gangetic plains 2: Places
Black soil
region soils- regression equations
 Background
Table 1:Techniques of fitting PTF’s

Statistical regressions Non-conventional Statistical methods

1.Multiple linear regression 1.Artifical neural network(ANN)

2.Polynomials of Nth order 2.K-Nearest Neighbour(KNN)

3.Classification and Regression
Trees(CART)

4.Support vector Machines

5.Genetic Algorithm(GA)

6.Genetic Programming(GP)
 Literature Review
1) SWCC estimation methods:
 Gupta and Larson (1979) developed regression equations for estimating soil water
characteristic curves using particle size distribution, bulk density and % of organic matter.
θw = a*sand (%) + b*silt (%) + c*clay (%) + d*organic matter (%) +
e*bulk density
 Arya and Paris (1981) estimated soil water characteristic curves by establishing the
relation between particle size and pore size. This is valid for spherical shaped pores.
 Rawls et al. (1982) developed equation to predict soil water characteristic curves by
establishing the relation between volumetric water content and matric suction with porosity
and hydraulic conductivity at saturation. The study had given the following relation to
estimate SWCC.
θw = a+b*sand (%) + c*silt (%) + d*clay (%) + e*organic matter (%) +
f*bulk density
 Saxton et al. (1986) had given relation for volumetric water content based on the air entry
value.

2)Point regression methods :

 Arruda et al. (1987), Meng et al. (1987), van den Berg M et al (1997), Oliveira et al. (2002),
Tomashella et al. (2003) , Srinivsarao et al. (2009), Chin et al. (2010), Chakraborty et al.
(2011), Costa et al. (2013), Kar et al., (2015), Kotlar et al., (2020) developed point PTF
equations at different metric suctions.
 -33kPA: Field capacity
 -1500kPA: Permanent welting point

3) Parametric regression methods:

 Tinjum et al. (1997), Tomasella et al. (2000), Matula et al. (2007), Shwetha P et al. (2012),
Patil et al. (2013) correlates soil properties with parameters of an analytical SWCC
equation.
4)Point and Parametric regression methods:
 Minasny B et al. (1999), Nebel et al. (2010), Tiwary et al. (2014), Medrado
et al. (2014) developed both point estimation PTFs and parametric
estimation PTFs using different approaches such as extended nonlinear
regression (ENR), multiple linear regression (MLR) and (artificial neural
network ANN.
 Critical appraisal of Literature review
 Various researchers have shown that SWCC can be measured directly form
in-situ/laboratory tests. Such direct measurements are however time consuming and costly.

 So researchers have developed indirect method to estimate SWCC by developing PTF

equations which in turn depends on no. of parameters.

 The main drawback of point PTF equations developed by various researchers is that they
can’t be used to determine water retention at any other matric suction whereas the
parametric PTF equation developed by researchers is not accurate when compared to point
PTF.

 The PTF’s developed for a particular soil in a region is not accurate for same soil in other
region..
 Objectives of the research
 To propose a simplified method to estimate soil water characteristic curve
(SWCC) for soils in India and Brazil using one-point SWCC measurement.

 To check the accuracy of point PTF's for 33 kPA (field capacity) and 1500
kPA (permanent wilting point) which are developed for particular states of
India and Brazil.

 To develop point PTF from easily measured properties such as textural and
physical properties such as particle size distribution.

 To develop an equation which correlate the hydraulic parameters to

minimum no. of independent parameters
 Methodology

1. Soils with information on grain-size distribution, volume–mass properties,

and SWCC were selected initially.
2. The parameters(D10,P200) together with volume–mass properties (i.e., bulk
density, initial void ratio) and SWCC data, were exported to Microsoft excel.
3. Using the Fredlund and Xing (1994) equation, four fitting parameters a, n, m,
and ꝕr were generated using a minimization algorithm for the selected data sets.
4. Using regression analyses, correlation was made between the Fredlund and
Xing (1994) SWCC parameters obtained in above step and basic index
properties of soils, such as e; D10; D30; D50; D60; coefficient of uniformity,
Cu; coefficient of curvature, Cc; and P200.
5. Other possible combined parameters such as eD50, eD60, eP200, and
e(D60/D10) were also attempted in the correlation.
 Methodology

6. Once the correlation had been identified, the fitting parameters were
expressed as a function of soil basic index properties.
7. To match the one-point SWCC measurement, at least one fitting parameter
was expressed as a function of an adjustable variable, x, instead of soil basic
index properties, so that the estimated SWCC could be adjusted to pass
through the measured SWCC point.
8. To assess the suitability of the correlation, the parameters from the correlation
were plotted with the experimental data points for all the calibration data sets.
9. Various correlations were attempted using a trial-and error procedure, until
the correlated fitting parameters plot showed good agreement with the
experimental data in the calibration data sets.
Trial and error method to determine x to fit
experimental SWCC

 Ref : Chin, et al. (2010). https://doi.org/10.1139/T10-033

 Conclusion
 A simplified method for SWCC estimation has been established and
evaluated.
 The results from the papers showed that the proposed method is simpler
and performs better than existing
 Plan of Action: This simplified method will be applied to Brazilian and
Indian soils and will also validate the established PTF equations to the
states of India and Brazil