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Title: FRACTAL PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO THE PREDICTION OF SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY

Author
item Gimenez, Daniel
item Allmaras, Raymond
item HUGGINS, DAVID - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Submitted to: BARC Poster Day
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/20/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ksat, is a function of macropore properties such as interaggregate pore volume and pore- wall roughness. Previous studies showed that these macropore properties are fractal between limits (statistical fractals). The objective of this work was to incorporate macroporosity, fractal dimension of pore volume, Dv, and fractal dimension of pore-wall roughness, Ds, into models of the Kozeny-Carman form to predict Ksat. Parameters macroporosity, Dv, and Ds were obtained from image analyses of impregnated soil blocks from a Normania soil. Also, two data sets from the literature were used. The first data set included macroporosity (from pore-size count), and maximum pore radius for several tillage systems in two soils (a Nicollet and a Waukegan). The second data set had measured Dv and Ds from image analyses of dye staining patterns, and macroporosity from gravitational drainage for five soils from Japan. All three data set had measured ksat. Results showed that macroporosity, Dv, and Ds were not enough to fully predict Ksat among soils, and that a matching factor was needed. This matching factor was a linear function of the difference between total porosity and macroporosity, and of the difference Dv-Ds. Fractal characterization of soil morphology/structure is useful in the prediction of Ksat. Extensions of this work are to investigate links between the matching factor and other morphological/physical soil properties, and to develop simple methods to obtain the parameters needed to characterize transport processes in soil.