Estimation of the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil incorporating the film flow

In the conventional method for the estimation of the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil, only the capillary water is considered in the estimation. However, it is known that a water film can be formed around soil particles due to the adsorptive force. The water may migrate in the soil through the water film. As a result, both water flow in the capillary water and water film should be considered in the estimation. In this paper, a new equation was proposed for the estimation of the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil by considering the film flow. The proposed method was verified with the experimental data from the literature. It is recommended that both capillary water flow and film flow should be considered in the estimation of the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil. Key words: hydraulic conductivity, capillary flow, film flow, estimation Dans la methode conventionnelle d'estimation de la conductivite hydraulique d'un sol non sature, seule l'eau capillaire est prise en compte dans l'estimation. Cependant, il est connu que le film d'eau peut se former autour des particules du sol en raison de la force d'adsorption. L'eau peut migrer dans le sol a travers le film d'eau. Par consequent, les mouvements de l'eau dans l'eau capillaire et le film d'eau doivent etre pris en compte dans l'estimation. Dans cet article, une nouvelle equation est proposee pour l'estimation de la conductivite hydraulique d'un sol non sature en prenant en compte le flux du film. La methode proposee est verifiee avec les donnees experimentales de la litterature. Il est recommande de prendre en compte a la fois le flux d'eau capillaire et le flux de film dans l'estimation de la conductivite hydraulique du sol non sature. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : conductivite hydraulique, ecoulement capillaire, ecoulement pelliculaire, estimation
1. Introduction Weber et al. (2019) suggested that water flow through unsaturated soil can be roughly categorized into three forms: (i) capillary water flows between soil particles; (ii) film flows [...]