New methods for determining soil hydraulic conductivity by disc tension infiltrometers

The disc tension infiltrometer was limited to measure soil hydraulic conductivity because it is difficult to calculate the results from the three-dimensional infiltration process. In this paper, the three-dimensional infiltration was changed to one-dimensional infiltration of disc tension infiltrometers to measure soil hydraulic conductivity in situ, which simplified the calculating processes. The results show that a significant correlation between steady infiltration rate and hydraulic conductivity in the limited one-dimensional infiltration, and the same results are gained from double-disc tension infiltrometer. However, the results from three-dimensional infiltration are bigger than that from one-dimensional infiltration. Distinct differences among one-dimensional infiltration, steady and transient calculating methods are observed. The double-disc tension infiltrometer is a good equipment for determining soil hydraulic conductivity.