IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v8y2020i12p2201-d460027.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relating Hydraulic Conductivity Curve to Soil-Water Retention Curve Using a Fractal Model

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Fuentes

    (Mexican Institute of Water Technology, Paseo Cuauhnáhuac Núm. 8532, Jiutepec 62550, Mexico)

  • Carlos Chávez

    (Water Research Center, Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Autonomous University of Queretaro, Cerro de las Campanas SN, Col. Las Campanas, Queretaro 76010, Mexico)

  • Fernando Brambila

    (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City 04510, Mexico)

Abstract

In the study of water transference in soil according to Darcy law, the knowledge of hydrodynamic characteristics, formed by the water retention curve θ(ψ), and the hydraulic conductivity curve K(ψ) are of great importance. The first one relates the water volumetric content (θ) with the water-soil pressure (ψ); the second one, the hydraulic conductivity (K) with the water-soil pressure. The objective of this work is to establish relationships between both curves using concepts of probability theory and fractal geometry in order to reduce the number of unknown functions. The introduction of four definitions used at the literature of the pore effective radius that is involve in the general model has permitted to establish four new specials models to predict the relative hydraulic conductivity. Some additional considerations related to the definitions of flow effective area and the tortuosity factor have allow us to deduce four classical models that are extensively used in different studies. In particular, we have given some interpretations of its empirical parameters in the fractal geometry context. The resulting functions for hydrodynamic characteristics can be utilized in many studies of water movement in the soil.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Fuentes & Carlos Chávez & Fernando Brambila, 2020. "Relating Hydraulic Conductivity Curve to Soil-Water Retention Curve Using a Fractal Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:8:y:2020:i:12:p:2201-:d:460027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/12/2201/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/12/2201/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fu, Qiang & Hou, Renjie & Li, Tianxiao & Li, Yue & Liu, Dong & Li, Mo, 2019. "A new infiltration model for simulating soil water movement in canal irrigation under laboratory conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 433-444.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lucas Jódar & Rafael Company, 2022. "Preface to “Mathematical Methods, Modelling and Applications”," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-2, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mehri, Akbar & Mohammadi, Amir Soltani & Ebrahimian, Hamed & Boroomandnasab, Saeid, 2023. "Evaluation and optimization of surge and alternate furrow irrigation performance in maize fields using the WinSRFR software," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    2. Zhongwei Liang & Tao Zou & Yupeng Zhang & Jinrui Xiao & Xiaochu Liu, 2022. "Sprinkler Drip Infiltration Quality Prediction for Moisture Space Distribution Using RSAE-NPSO," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-32, May.
    3. Mazarei, Reza & Soltani Mohammadi, Amir & Ebrahimian, Hamed & Naseri, Abd Ali, 2021. "Temporal variability of infiltration and roughness coefficients and furrow irrigation performance under different inflow rates," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:8:y:2020:i:12:p:2201-:d:460027. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.