Feasibility to use aero-infiltration in measuring of the infiltration rate and soil moisture content
Global water scarcity, one of the major threats to humanity, not only in arid or semiarid regions of the world but in overpopulated cities is rising. Population and rapid economic development growth have increase demands for water tremendously. Irrigation activities, mainly in many developing countr...
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2754/ http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2754/1/Feasibility_to_use_aero%2Dinfiltration_in_measuring_of_the_infiltration.pdf |
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| Summary: | Global water scarcity, one of the major threats to humanity, not only in arid or semiarid regions of the world but
in overpopulated cities is rising. Population and rapid economic development growth have increase demands for
water tremendously. Irrigation activities, mainly in many developing countries, consume most the world useable
water as compare to domestic and industrial activities. Improvement to water utilization efficiencies, especially
in the agricultural sector, will effectively contribute to lessen the magnitude to this problem. Water seepage rate,
or infiltration, into the ground topsoil and the moisture content of soil at particular period in time are important
factors in any agricultural farm irrigation operation both in the tropic and temperate regions. Accurate
measurements for these factors are not so readily available on the most farmlands since present measuring
equipments are not practically suitable. This paper proposes a measuring device that uses a very simple method
to measure water infiltration rate into the ground and expansively determine the moisture condition of the soil.
Considering that water and air are dynamic vectors, air is possible to diffuse on the similar way as water drips
and move from surface to subsurface layer of land during an infiltration process. The mathematical models
which formulate the correlations of water infiltration rates into the ground and ground soil moisture contents
against air pressure drop rates from the aero-infiltrometer has been empirically developed to define the dynamics
and hydraulics phenomena. Parameters in the equations are all physically meaningful and readily from field and
laboratory experiments. Experimental validation showed that the equations remained relatively accurate. The
aero-infiltrometer is expected to be commonly used to optimize water usage. |
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