8.

Introduction:

Infiltration is the process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil.It is mostly
measured in inches/hour or milimetres/hours.Infiltration is caused by gravity and capillary

action. The rate of infiltration is determined by soil characteristics including ease of entry,
storage capacity, and transmission rate through the soil. The soil texture and structure,
vegetation types and cover, water content of the soil, soil temperature, and rainfall intensity
all play a role in controlling infiltration rate and capacity.

The process of infiltration can continue only if there is room available for additional water
at the soil surface. The available volume for additional water in the soil depends on the
porosity of the soil and the rate at which previously infiltrated water can move away from
the surface through the soil. The maximum rate that water can enter a soil in a given
condition is the infiltration capacity.The rate of infiltration decreases as the soil becomes
saturated.

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/infiltration_(hydrology))

Infiltration is measured by infiltrometer.It is a device used to measure the rate of water

infiltration into soil.The most commonly used infiltrometers in ring infiltrometer are single
ring and double ring infiltrometer.They provide a relative indication of infiltration capacity
under saturatedconditions.

(wiki.landscapetoolbox.org/doku.php/field_methods:Infiltration)

.A generalized categorisation in infiltration rates under different situation in accordance to

soil characteristic is provided by FAO , 1979 as reflected in Table 1, which itself
established the crucial needs to consider heterogeneities in regards to this prime hydrologic
process.
 Table 8.1 Infiltration rates for certain particle-size classes (FAO 1979).

Textural class Infiltration rate(cm/hr)

Minimum Mean Maximum

Clay 0.01 0.05 0.1

Silty Clay 0.03 0.25 0.50

Clay Loam 0.25 0.8 1.5

Loam 0.8 1.3 2.0

SandyLoam 1.3 2.5 7.6

Sand 2.5 5.0 25.0

8.1 History of infiltration study:-

There are various methodologies for the rate of infiltratiin estimation through unsaturated
soil zone designed as vadose zone.The flow through unsaturated porous media was first
described by Darcy’s a French hydraulic engineer in 1856.richard(1931) derived the
equation from darcy’s law of conservation o0f mass,known as richard’s equation.the
equation describing infiltration process was first developed by green and Ampt(1911)
which was physically based.The Green- Ampt model due to its simplicity as well
acceptable performance has been considered as the basis for developments of applied soil
sciences and hydrology. Green - Ampt approach is based on estimation of the water flux,
which is difficult to simulate, since model assumes a sharp wetting front.

Later on Mein and Larsen(1973) revised Gree -Ampt equation for determination of
ponding time, which is widely used in infiltration modeling. Kostiakov (1932) happens to
have first suggested the infiltration equation based on curve fitting from field data. His
model relates infiltration to time as a power function. Lewis (1937) independently gave the
same equation as given by Kostiakov by introducing soil constant ‘c’. This equation is well
known as modified Kostiakov equation. The Kostiakov as well as modified Kostiakov are
the most favored models for studies of infiltration, probably because these are having less
limitation on water application methods.Horton (1940) developed an equation for
cumulative infiltration for large value of ‘t’. Horton’s model among various models is the
best models forhydrological studies.He documented that the infiltration capacity of soil
decreases with increase in time until it approachesa lowest constant rate.

(http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/123369/10/10_chapter%201.pdf)

8.2 Factors affecting Infiltration:-

The process of infiltration is affected by many different factors. Important factors

are the following:

8.2.1 Soil Texture and Structure:

It is already made clear that the water cannot continue to enter soil more rapidly than it is
transmitted downward. The conditions at the surface, therefore, cannot increase infiltration
unless the transmission capacity of the soil profile is adequate.
The continuity of non-capillary or large pores provides easy paths for percolating water.
If the subsoil formation has coarse texture the water may infiltrate into the soil so quickly
that no water will be left for runoff even if rainfall is quite heavy. On the contrary clayey
soils after soaking some water in the initial stages of the rainfall may swell considerably.
It makes the soil almost watertight and infiltration may get reduced to practically
negligible extent.

8.2.2 Conditions at Soil Surface:

Even if the subsoil has excellent under drainage but at the surface soil pores are sealed
due to turbid water or by in wash of fine soil particles it may prevent entry of water into
the soil and infiltration rate will be low.

8.2.3 Soil-Moisture Content:

When the soil is fairly dry the rate of infiltration into the soil is quite high. The infiltration
rate diminishes as the soil-moisture storage capacity is exhausted. After this infiltration
rate equals transmission rate. The rate of infiltration in early phases of a rainfall will be
less if the soil pores are still filled from previous rain storm.
When the soil is fairly dry the rate of infiltration into the soil is quite high. The infiltration
rate diminishes as the soil-moisture storage capacity is exhausted. After this infiltration
rate equals transmission rate. The rate of infiltration in early phases of a rainfall will be
less if the soil pores are still filled from previous rain storm.

8.2.4 Type of Vegetative Cover:

Vegetative cover affects surface entry of water significantly. The vegetation or mulches
protect the soil surface from impact of rain drops. The lengthy and extensive root system
penetrate the soil and increases its porosity. Organic matter from crops promotes a crumbly
by structure and improves soil permeability. Forest canopy protects soil surface whereas
row crops provide less protection to soil.
 Vegetative cover affects surface entry of water significantly. The vegetation or mulches
protect the soil surface from impact of rain drops. The lengthy and extensive root system
penetrate the soil and increases its porosity. Organic matter from crops promotes a crumbly
by structure and improves soil permeability. Forest canopy protects soil surface whereas
row crops provide less protection to soil.

8.2.5 Soil Temperature:

If saturated soil mass gets frozen due to severe low temperature it becomes nearly
impermeable. It affects the infiltration.

8.2.6 Human Activities on Soil Surface:

If the soil surface gets compacted due to construction of roads, operation of tractors and
other farm implements and machinery the porosity of the soil is decreased. As a result
bigger pores are almost eliminated making soil impermeable. It reduces the infiltration
rates appreciably.
 (https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-factors-affecting-infiltration)

8.3 Terminologirs Realted to Infiltration:-

 Infiltration Rate (i): The amount of water entering the soil per unit time.
 Basic Infiltration Rate: The rate at which infiltration becomes constant is called
as basic infiltration rate. It is also called as constant infiltration rate and upon type
of soil.
 Infiltration Capacity (Infiltrability): The amount of water per unit time which a
given soil profile takes in through its surface when it is continued in contact with
water at the atmospheric pressure.
 Average Infiltration Rate (iavr): Average infiltration rate is the cumulative
infiltration divided by the total time of infiltration measured from the beginning of
infiltration (I/t).
 Sorptivity (S): It is a function of initial and as well as saturated water contents, and
may be obtained by determining the slope of I/t versus t. sorptivity is mainly
required in Philip’s two-term model of infiltration.
 Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity (K): It measures the soils ability to conduct
water when saturated. The type of soil affects the value of the saturated hydraulic
conductivity and it is site-specific.
  Permanent Wilting Point (PWP): The permanent wilting point is the water
content of a soil when most plants growing in that soil wilts and fail to recover their
turgidity even after rewetting.
 Field Capacity (FC): The field capacity is the amount of water remaining in the
soil a few days after having been wetted and after free drainage has stopped. The
volumetric soil moisture content remaining at field capacity is about 15 to 25% for
sandy soils, 35 to 45% for loam soils, and 45 to 55% for clayey soils.
8.4 There are two methods for measuring water infiltration

8.4.1 Field methods for measuring infiltration

8.4.2 Different models of water infiltration in soil.

8.4.1 Field methods for measuring infiltration

1) Ring Infiltrometer

2) Pressure Infiltrometer
3) Tension Infiltrometer

4) Mini-Disc Infiltrometer

5) Guelph Permeameter(Fatehnia, M. (2015))

(1)Ring infiltrometer:(wiki.landscapetoolbox.org/doku.php/field_methods!infiltration)

 The single ring infiltrometer involves

driving a single metal ring paratially into
the soil and filling it will water.
 Double ring infiltrometers require two
rings(inner and outer)which creats a one
dimensional flow of water from the inner
ring.
  The inner ring is located around the
smaller one in order to help control the
flow of water through the first ring.
 In both cases recording how much water
goes into the soil for a given time period.
 The difference between the single ring and Double ring
double ring method is that with single ring
method,water laterally as well as
vertically making the analysis more
difficult.
 Also reported that radius of 60 and 50 cm
for the outer and inner rings were the most
satisfactory for various condition in a
sandy soil.

 Limitation of ring infiltrometer

The ring infiltrometer are having certain limitations such as infiltration rate decreases with
increase in depth and diameter of infiltration rings.

 The rate of infiltrometer increases as the head of water increases in constant head and
cannot be used on a sloping soil surface.
 There are many variations of this m pouehod and the size of the cylinder used can be
source of error
 To pound the infiltrometer into the ground disturbs the soil which can alter the infiltration
capacity measurement.
 Ground disturbance can cause a poor connection between the ring wall and soil,leading
to a leakage of water.
 Water spread outside from the bottom of single ring infiltrometer.
 In ring infiltrometer major disadvantages is time taking operation and it nees 2 to 3
peoples to set up and reach by carry instrument.
(2)Pressure Infiltromete(Matula and Kozáková, 1997)

 Pressure infiltrometer is a Mariotte

type infiltrometer mostly used to assess
the integrity of clay liners or other soil
barriers.
 The device, as shown in the following
figure, is constructed from
noncorrosive materials (Plexiglas,
PVC, Teflon) and uses the mechanical-
hydraulic principle without need of an
external energy supply
 The device enables the measurement of
the cumulative infiltration of ponded
water from the infiltration ring.
 The metal infiltration ring (inner
diameter of 15 cm) is equipped by its
own water gauge for reading the
constant water level H in the
infiltration ring at a certain time after
the start of the infiltration experiment.
The depth of metal ring penetration
into the soil can be up to 10 cm.
 The infiltrometer can supply water
during the experiment up to the amount
corresponding with saturated hydraulic
conductivity of 77m/day.
(3)Tension infiltrometer (Fatehnia, M. (2015))

 Tension infiltrometers are designed to

measure the unsaturated hydraulic
properties of soils.
 This is accomplished by maintaining a
small negative pressure on the water as
it moves out of the infiltrometer disc
into the soil.
 The test measures the hydraulic
properties of unsaturated soil by
holding water under tension to
infiltrate in to a dry soil through a
highly permeable nylon membrane.
 The suction is controlled by the bubble
chamber and the water infiltrates
through the main water reservoir.

 Hood type tension infiltrometer:(hydropedology.agrobiologie.cz/en-hood.html)

 Hood infiltrometer is a new type of

tension infiltrometer.it is a device used
for determination of saturated and
unsaturated hydraulic conductivities in
situ.
 compare to other infiltration designs
infiltrating water is in direct contact
 with the infiltration surface.there is no
need for any contact material.
 contact material creats an additional
layer,which can affect the infiltration
process and makes the subsequent data
analysis more complicated

(4)Mini-Disk Infiltrometer(Fatehnia, M. (2015))

 Mini-Disk Infiltrometer is a small

version of the Tension Infiltrometer
test used to measure unsaturated
hydraulic conductivity at tensions
between -0.5 cm and -6 cm.is consists
of two chambers,which are filled with
water.
 The top chamber (or bubble chamber)
controls the suction. The lower
chamber contains a volume of water
that infiltrates into the soil at a rate
determined by the suction selected in
the bubble chamber.
 The lower chamber is labeled like a
graduated cylinder with volume
shown in mL. The bottom of the
Inltrometer has a porous sintered
stainless steel disk which does not
allow water to leak in open air.
 The small diameter of the disk allows
for undisturbed measurements on
 relatively level soil surfaces.
However, only a small part of the soil
is measured, that does not fulfil the
requirements of the representative
volume.

(5)Guelph Permeameter(Reynolds and Elrick, 1985)

 The Guelph Permeameter is an easy to

use instrument for quickly and
accurately measuring insitu saturated
hydraulic conductivity by applying a
constant pressure within a borehole or
shallow hole.
 Like the tension infiltrometer
(tensiometer), it applies a constant
head using a Mariotte bottle, infiltrates
water into an unsaturated material, and
requires steady state flow conditions
 before the measurements can be used
to calculate hydraulic conductivity.
 Accurate evaluation of soil hydraulic
conductivity, soil sorptivity, and
matrix flux potential can be made in all
types of soils. It differs from the
tension infiltrometer in that it applies a
positive pressure, instead of a tension
 Measurements can be made in the
range of 15 to 75 cm below the soil
surface in 1/2 to 2 hours,depending on
soil type, and require only about 2.5
liters of water.
 As shown in the following figure,the
test set-up includes the permeameter,
field tripod, well auger, well
preparation, collapsible water
container, and vacuum test hand pump.
 Depth attachments increase the depth
of operation by 80 cm with a
maximum practical operating depth of
315 cm.
8.4.2 Different models of water infiltration in soil.

Different approaches are being used to determine the soil infiltration rate. Many simple
analytical equations are available for determination of infiltration. Some of the well-known
infiltration equations are:
I. Horton Equation 1940
II. Philip Equation 1954
III. Kostiakov Equation 1932
IV. Modified Kostiakov Equation 1978
V. Green and Ampt 1911
I. Horton Infiltration Model

The infiltration process was thoroughly studied by Horton in the early 1939. The
infiltration

capacity of the soil is given by the following relation:

fp=fc+(f0+fc)e-kt

Where: fp - infiltration capacity at some time t,

k- constant representing the rate of decrease in f capacity,

fc - final capacity,

f0 - initial infiltration capacity.

II. Philip’s Two- Term Model

1 1
q(t)=2 S𝑡 −2 +A
1
I(t)= S𝑡 −2 +At

where, q is infiltration rate in cm/h,

t is time for infiltration in hours,

1
S is the sorptivity in cm/ℎ2 ,
 ‘A’ is a constant having unit cm/h which depends on the soil properties as well as
initial and saturated water contents, and I (t) is the cumulative infiltration in cm at any
interval of time t.

III. Kostiakov Equation

A simple form of the Infiltration equation which is in general use was developed by
Kostiakov (1932) and is expressed as:

Y=atb

Where: Y- cumulative infiltration,

t- time from start of infiltration,

‘a’ and ‘b’ are soil constants to be determined experimentally.

The Kostiakov parameters ‘a’ and ‘b’ must be evaluated from the field measured
infiltration data, since they have no physical interpretation.

IV. Modified Kostiakov Equation

The SCS (USA) modified the form of the above equation by introducing a term ‘c’.

Y=atb + c

Where, c - soil decay constants

V. Green-Ampt Equation
Ks(L+S)
fp= 𝐿

where, L=distance between the ground surface and wetting front,

S=capillary suction

Ks=saturated hydraulic conductivity.

(http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/123369/12/12_chapter%203.pdf)
8.5 Open Source Microcontroller Platform Arduino For Data Storage:

8.5.1 What is Arduino?

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and

software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or
a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED,
publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of
instructions to the microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino
programming language (based on Wiring), and the Arduino Software (IDE), based on
Processing.

Fig-8.1 arduino microcontroller with identification of existing parts

8.5.2 Why Arduino ?

There are many other microcontrollers and microcontroller platforms available for physical
computing. Parallax Basic Stamp, Netmedia's BX-24, Phidgets, MIT's Handyboard, and
many others offer similar functionality.But arduino offers some advantage for teachers,
students, and interested amateurs over other systems:

1)Inexpensive - Arduino boards are relatively inexpensive compared to other

microcontroller platforms.

2)Cross-platform - The Arduino Software (IDE) runs on Windows, Macintosh OSX, and
Linux operating systems. Most microcontroller systems are limited to Windows.

3)Simple, clear programming environment - The Arduino Software (IDE) is easy-to-use

for beginners, yet flexible enough for advanced users to take advantage of as well. For
teachers, it's conveniently based on the Processing programming environment, so students
learning to program in that environment will be familiar with how the Arduino IDE works.

4)Open source and extensible software - The Arduino software is published as open
source tools, available for extension by experienced programmers. The language can be
expanded through C++ libraries, and people wanting to understand the technical details
can make the leap from Arduino to the AVR C programming language on which it's based.
Similarly, you can add AVR-C code directly into your Arduino programs if you want to.

5)Open source and extensible hardware - The plans of the Arduino boards are published
under a Creative Commons license, so experienced circuit designers can make their own
version of the module, extending it and improving it. Even relatively inexperienced users
can build the breadboard version of the module in order to understand how it works and
save money.

(https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Introduction)