Measurement and Scaling of Hydraulic Properties of Porous Media

Abstract

In this study a method was developed to describe the spatial variability of the hydraulic conductivity and retention functions of soil. In order to develop this method experimentally determined conductivity and retention functions were obtained for a selected Teller soil. The scaling method developed in this study is based on the fact that both the conductivity and retention functions can be shown to fit a power law function. The exponent of the power law function can then be used to scale the hydraulic functions of the soil. This method was observed to work well for both the experimental data obtained for the Teller soil and other published data.