Estimating Brooks-Corey model parameters based on soil water infiltration data under two kinds of negative water pressures

Accurate information of soil hydraulic properties is important for unsaturated soil water movement and solute transport, but measurement of these properties is usually time-consuming, expensive and difficult. Taking an assumption that soil hydraulic properties could be described by Brooks-Corey model, the Brooks-Corey model parameters based on soil water infiltration data under two different negative water pressures by combining the Darcy theorem with mass conservation were discussed. When the relationships between cumulative infiltration capacity and wetting front are determined during soil water infiltration, the parameters of Books-Corey model can be estimated. The analytical method was evaluated with numerical simulations of water flow and compared with the method by Wang. The new method is simple and provides a good precision for estimation Brooks-Corey model parameters.