Drip irrigation - I: soil water relation during water transient infiltration

Abstract

The moisture content distribution along a soil profile at the water transient-state infiltration, depends on the rate of water application on the soil surface. Soil columns, prepared in the laboratory, by packing sieved and air dried soil into cilinder tubes were used to study the distribution of moisture content at the moment of infiltration. Drops of water, were applied simulating rain, at eight different intensities, called treatments, with two repetitions. It was found that when the water application rate was continualy reduced throughout the treatments, the moisture content also diminished and vice versa. It was also concluded that when the rain application intensity was decreasing to very small rate, the moisture content had shuch a slow redution, as if going to a limit, which was logically found to be the soil field capacity.