A Non-Empirical Method for Computing Pore Radii and Soil Water Characteristics from Particle-Size Distribution

作者:Arya Lalit M; Heitman Joshua L*
来源:Soil Science Society of America Journal, 2015, 79(6): 1537-1544.
DOI:10.2136/sssaj2015.04.0145

摘要

Soil water characteristics (SWC) is a common requirement in studies of soil physics and hydrology, and modeling this property is preferred because experimental measurements are error-prone, time-consuming, and costly. However, unknown empirical parameters in SWC models remain a source of uncertainty. This study proposes a formulation for computing pore radii and SWCs from routinely available particle-size distribution (PSD), bulk density, and particle density data, without the need for incorporating unknown empirical parameters. The proposed model emerged from combining attributes of natural-packed soil structure with those of a counterpart hypothetical structure consisting of spherical particles, and has the form r(in) = root 0.0717 Phi(w(i)/rho(b))/n(i)(i/3)R(i) where r(in) is the pore radius for a given fraction of particles on the PSD curve, Phi is the porosity, w(i) is the fraction solid mass, rho(b) is the bulk density, n(i) is the number of spherical particles that can be formed using the fraction solid mass, and R-i is the mean particle radius for the fraction. The model was applied to calculate SWC for 41 soils consisting of loam, clay, sandy loam, and sand textures. Root mean square residuals (RMSRs) of log-transformed pressure heads were calculated to assess goodness of agreement between experimental pressure heads and those predicted by the non-empirical model of this study and the empirical model of Arya et al. The distribution of RMSR values (log(10)vertical bar h vertical bar, cm) showed a range from 0.021 to 1.309. When viewed in conjunction with plotted SWC curves, results showed reasonable to excellent agreement with experimental data in about 75% of the cases. Barring a few exceptions, predictions of the proposed model also agreed well with predictions of the empirical model of Arya et al.

  • 出版日期2015-12