One-Dimensional Flow Infiltration Through a Compacted Fine Grained Soil

Compacted soils are widely used in engineering work and engineers often specify that cohesive soils be compacted either around or on the wet side of optimum water content. In general, at the corresponding degree of saturation values, water component in soil voids is continuous but the air phase is not. The modelling of the infiltration process through compacted soils requires that unsaturated hydraulic functions be defined. A theoretical soil water retention function for soils with a discontinuous air phase is derived using the theory proposed by Schuurman (1966). Data from the test results provide encouraging evidence of the validity of the proposed theory. An empirical hydraulic conductivity function where the air is present in the form of occluded bubbles is also determined by curve fitting to the experimental measurements. A numerical solution of Richards' equation for one-dimensional flow, which incorporates the experimental findings, was used to simulate the measured transient water flow. The results show that the proposed constitutive relationships are capable of producing simulations of the measurements of the unsaturated flow that are both qualitatively and quantitatively realistic.