Using Global Characteristics of a Centrifuge Outflow Experiment to Determine Unsaturated Soil Parameters

Abstract

Several centrifugation scenarios enabling the determination of soil parameters for saturated-unsaturated flow in porous media are presented, investigated, and discussed. Only global characteristics of the infiltration process in a sample are used, so that only simple, noninvasive measurements are performed. The characteristics can be transient measurements of the rotational momentum, or of the gravitational center, or of the water amount injected and expelled from the sample. No information about the saturation or the head distribution in the sample is required. This setup is different from the common multioutflow experiments. We give numerical proof that this method allows for fast determination of soil parameters in comparison to traditional measurements based on equilibrium conditions. The mathematical model of infiltration is represented by Richards' strongly nonlinear and degenerate equation expressed in terms of soil parameters in the van Genuchten-Mualem ansatz. The parameter identification process is realized in an iterative way applying the Levenberg-Marquardt method. Numerical experiments support the efficiency of the analyzed method and allow one to identify the optimal centrifugation scenario for imbibition and drainage to be applied when using global characteristics.