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research article

Anisotropy factor of saturated and unsaturated soils

Assouline, S.
•
Or, D.  
2006
Water Resources Research

Variations in the degree of anisotropy in soil hydraulic conductivity with changes in water saturation (S-e) may adversely impact predictability of flow and transport processes. The conceptual "layered cake'' model was extended to consider effects of bulk density variations within a particular soil type. The anisotropy factor as function of matric potential A(psi) exhibits different behavior for different soil textures. For example, A(psi) for sand shows complex behavior with a local maximum just before A( y) drops to a minimum where sand becomes isotropic (A(psi) = 1) near psi = - 1.0 bar. Experimentally determined relationships between soil bulk density and hydraulic properties show existence of strong correlation between A(S-e) and the ratio of extreme hydraulic conductivity values K(S-e)(max)/K(S-e)(min) for each soil for the entire saturation range and across several soil types. The strong dependency of anisotropy factor on extreme values K-max and K-min was investigated for four simple and continuous probability density functions of bulk density. Additionally, simple analytical expressions for a binary system of alternating layers with K-max and K-min only were derived. An upper bound for A(S-e) is obtained with equal weight for K-max and K-min ( w = 0.5). The experimental data and model predictions agreed for certain values of weight assigned to either K-max or K-min (similar to w = 0.02). Other approximations based on Kmax and K-min provide simple estimates for anisotropy factor that could be related to shape of statistical distribution of hydraulic conductivity.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1029/2006WR005001
Web of Science ID

WOS:000242759300003

Author(s)
Assouline, S.
Or, D.  
Date Issued

2006

Published in
Water Resources Research
Volume

42

Issue

12

Article Number

W12403

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LASEP  
Available on Infoscience
August 24, 2007
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/10726
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