Caspian Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 1(11), pp. 17-22, 2012 Available online at http://www.cjasr.

com ISSN: 2251-9114, 2012 CJASR

The Investigation of Infiltration Experimental Methods for Accessing to Perfect Model in Surface Irrigation
Ali Gholami1, Mansour Parehkar2, Negin Darbandi1
1

Department of Soil Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khouzestan, Iran 2 Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Institute, Iran *Corresponding Author: Email: m.parehkar@gmail.com

The aim of this research is to find out the applicable model for surface irrigation. In the surface irrigation method, the soil was contacted and saturated by water, therefore in this research in order to determine water permeability in soil, double ring method that is field survey, was used. Five methods includes: kostiakov, Philip, Green-Ampt, Horton and SCS, were selected and all methods were accessed by writing computer programming then their results were compared with the achieved results of double-ring experiments. It is noticeable that soil science reports of different 315 points were used. Estimated cumulative infiltration parameter, estimated infiltration rate and mean infiltration rate were calculated by using of experimental parameters like time, cumulative infiltration and infiltration rate and also by using above physical models and then the efficiency of every model were determined. Results showed that Kostiakov model had highest efficiency and it was introduced as the best model for estimating cumulative infiltration, infiltration rate and estimated mean infiltration rate. SCS and Philip models were known as the best model after Kostiakov model and the efficiency of Kostiakov, SCS (Soil Conservation service), and Philip was respectively reported 0.968, 0.881, 0.877, for 315 points. SCS method is not suitable for the area by low permeability. Keywords: Double Ring, Experimental Methods, Water Infiltration in soil

1. INTRODUCTION Water is a source of life and it has considerable role in soil and water relations. Most of processes that are done in plant are directly and indirectly related to water (Bybordi, 1989) Plant root prepares required water for plants by absorbing water of soil. Soil water is basically entered from surface into soil by infiltration process (Rahnama and Moghaddam, 2007; Dashtaki et al., 2009; Dashtaki and Homaee, 2007). Regarding to agriculture, one of the most important parameters in soil physics is infiltration. It means entering water into soil from soil surface. Other considerable discussions about this subject are infiltration, the amount of infiltrated water per time and passed time period for infiltration. Cumulative infiltration and spontaneous infiltration rate respectively means the amount of infiltrated water per specific period of time and the velocity or speed at which water enters into the soil at the moment (Alizadeh, 2004) Infiltration rate is one of the most important parameters in designing irrigation systems, hydrology studies and soil conservation, water resources management and planning drainage projects and erosion control in watershed basin. So that it is important to access the accurate amount of

infiltration and it is necessary to be noted to it (Zadeh et al., 1995). There are different equations for determining the state of water infiltration to soil that some of them are based on physical properties and infiltration curves during time. Using of these equations help to prevent of time-consuming acts in field especially in the wide levees so that Kostiakov, Horton, Philip, Green-Ampt and SCS models were selected in project to follow this aim (Safi, 1995). 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1. The position of under experimented area In this research, required data was received from agriculture Jahad ministry and soil and water engineering Service Company that these data were related to some provinces of country. These cities were included: Zangvan in Ilam province, Kordkandi and koozreh in Hamadn province, Bileh Savar Moghan in East Azarbayjan, 2Tapeh in Zanjan, Luin Sadeh in Markazi province, Baba Hadi in Kermanshah and Shirin Ab Shooshtar, Jafir-Kooshk, Rimkan Behbahan, Miangaran, Cham Golak and Sabz Ab Gotvand in Khozestan province, Hoor Bozorg in Isfahan province and Ghezel Tpeh in Golestan province. In this research,

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Gholami et al. The Investigation of Infiltration Experimental Methods for Accessing to Perfect Model in Surface Irrigation

the information of done experiments by soil and Water Company was used for accessing the effect of soil surface conditions on infiltration, determining the coefficients of water infiltration models into soil and running the write computer programming. Data was related to 315points that double rings experiments was done on them. Soil texture was measured in these soils. The soil texture of selected area was most Silty Clay Loam (SCL) but other textures like Sandy (S) and Silty (Si) were also used. 2.2. Infiltration measurement by double-ring method One of methods for determining water infiltration into soil is double ring method. This instrument is organized of two concentric metal rings that be put into each other and one of ring spouts has sharp edge that helps to go into soil easily. The diameter of inner ring is between 28 to 32cm and the diameter of outer ring is 53-57cm. The diameter of outer ring is about 25cm bigger than inner ring. The height of rings is 30cm that about 5-12cm of them goes into soil before starting the experiment (Alemi, 1981). So that, at first water be poured in outer ring and then after a time period, water be poured in inner ring, too. Water height is stabled in the similar measure in both of rings and the height of water above the soil be measured in time period of 5, 10, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 minutes. Accordingly, the amount of water infiltration into soil is calculated. The outer ring is used to prevent of horizontal movement of water in the inner ring (Alemi, 1981; PMEWA, 1990; Chang and Hills, 1993).

2.3. Computer programming and the entrance of experimental data This program has been written in Visual Basic and named infiltration and be run under this name. First, after opening the file menu, there are 6 computer pages that the first of them has been named experimental data of Kostiakov, GreenAmpt, Horton, and SCS. In the experimental data page, the field information of double ring experiment is entered in 2 or 3 duplications. In the above of table, Project name, date, experiment duplication and the profile that soil physical properties of region had been determined by it, has been mentioned. After determining the above part of table, the experiment is started. There are three columns. First column determines the beginning time of experiment. Second time has two parts that first part is related to the difference among measured times and second part shows cumulative time based on minute. Third column is infiltration based on centimeter that is divided to three parts. First part is read infiltration, its data has been collected of double ring experiment, second column is the difference between read infiltrations and third column shows cumulative infiltration that is the summation of infiltration difference in second column. In table bellow click on run the infiltration program. The first question of this program is about the number of taken points. Point number be counted of field data table and be entered and then the program be run (Figure 1).

Fig. 1: The input of infiltration program

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Caspian Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 1(11), pp. 17-22, 2012

Accordingly, the double ring experiment that was done in field be calculated by mentioned equations. In these calculations, the coefficients that are related to every equation, including regression coefficient (R2) and efficiency factor (EF), were determined. Efficiency coefficient of model is a good index for confirming or rejecting infiltration equations. 3. RESULTS Statistical parameters are usually used for accessing the results of model. In this study, the equation of efficiency factor of model was used as bellow:

Pi is estimated amount, Oi is observed amount, O and is the mean of observed

In this equation amount and N is points number. Efficiency factor of model shows the validity of data fit. It changes from - in the worst situation of low estimation to 1 in the time that data be completely fitted and to + in the worst situation of high estimation. After entering the achieved results of field experiments and running given computer programming for 315points, the bellow results were calculated for different models that achieved efficiency of 5models are give as follow: Kostiokov model 0.968, Philip model0.881, SCS 0.877, Green-Ampt 0.433 and Horton model 0.328 that the best efficiency of model were respectively extracted for Kostiokov, Philip and SCS model by given programming (Figure2).

EF ( (Oi O ) 2 ( Pi Oi ) 2 / (Oi O ) 2
i 1 i 1 i 1

Fig. 2: Efficiency of Kostiokov, Green-Ampt, Horton, SCS and Philip models The comparison among the achieved results of 3models has been shown in Figure3. This curve shows that the results of Kostiokov and SCS models have been more correspondences to each other in the long time (Dashtaki et al., 2009; Dashtaki and Homaee, 2007; Alizadeh, 2004).

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Gholami et al. The Investigation of Infiltration Experimental Methods for Accessing to Perfect Model in Surface Irrigation

Fig. 3: The comparison of infiltration results in Kostiokov, SCS and Philip Models Figure 4 is a comparison between 3 models and read infiltration in field that shows the adaption between observed data with extracted data of Kostiakov model.

Fig. 4: The comparison the results of cumulative infiltration between Kostiakov, SCS and Philip models and Observed data Figure 5 compares the cumulative infiltration rate in 5models, Kostiakov, Philip, Horton, GreenAmpt, and SCS with the observed data. Results show that Kostiakov model has most adaption with observed data.

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Caspian Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 1(11), pp. 17-22, 2012

Fig. 5: The comparison between infiltration rate in Kostiakov, Philip, Horton, Green-Ampt and SCS models with observed data SCS method is not suitable for soils that have low infiltration or namely their cumulative infiltration is less than 0.6985 cm in the first minutes. It means if cumulative infiltration amount in every soil is less than 0.6985cm in the first time, SCS method is not answerable (Rahimi and Kashkooli, 2006). For example, the amount of cumulative infiltration was equal to 0.5cm in first 10 minutes in Sabz Ab lands so that it created problem in using of SCS model. This error was observed only in 48 samples of 315 experiments. The amount of saturated hydraulic conductivity has been defined in Philip method but when the best amount of K, achieving by numerical calculations, was fitted by the achieved K of experiment, K was negative in some points. If K gets positive by using other method of numerical calculations, the efficiency amount of model will decrease. The aim of usage this equation is using them in practical work so that K has been used only as a parameter for best fitting here. Figure 6 shows the suitable method for the best fitting by attention to K definition regarding to soil physics (Rahnama and Moghaddam, 2007).

Fig. 6: The comparison of best method for best fitting by physical method and observed data Green-Ampt and Horton models calculate only the amount of infiltration rate. It is while determining cumulative infiltration has specific important in most practical work like irrigation. If the amount of cumulative infiltration be calculated with the estimated infiltration rate of above

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Gholami et al. The Investigation of Infiltration Experimental Methods for Accessing to Perfect Model in Surface Irrigation

equations, the amount of error will increase so that, however, the equations hadnt agreement with the achieved results of experiments, using them had problem in application. 4. CONCLUSIONS By analysis the results of infiltration experiment on 315points, model efficiency of Kostiakov, SCS, Philip, Green-Ampt and Horton were respectively calculated as: 0.968, 0.881, 0.887, 0.433, and 0.328. Estimation of cumulative infiltration by Kostiakov, Philip and SCS models are better than Horton and Green-Ampt models but SCS model is more accurate in short time periods while in a long period, the difference between anticipated amount of cumulative infiltration and observed amount of cumulative infiltration increases. Use of Kostiakov model be recommended for surface irrigation programming but usage of these models arent recommended in watershed management and soil erosion because precipitation process causes incarcerating the air in upper part of soil profile, splash erosion and detaching soil surface particles (Sedigh, 1989). It is while double ring experiment cant simulate these processes. Models that are under test are determined. In this model, first of all the infiltration experiment be done and then the coefficients of model be determined so that offering models that can participate infiltration by attention to soil physical and chemical properties is suggested for future researches. REFERENCES Alemi, MH (1981) Distribution of Water and Salt in Soil under Trickle and Pot Irrigation Regimes. - Agricultural Water Management Vol. 3, 195-203. Alizadeh A (2004). Water, soil and plant relationship. Third edition, University Press of Imam Reza. Bybordi M (1989). Irrigation Engineering Principle. Volume 1. Tehran University Publications.

Clemmens AJ (1983). Infiltration equations for border irrigation models. In: Proc. Conference on Advances in Infiltration, 1213 December, Chicago, IL., USA. PP. 266274. Chang WJ, Hills DJ (1993). Sprinkler droplet effects on infiltration. J. Irrig. Drain. Eng. ASCE, 119(1): 142-156. Dashtaki SG, Homaee M (2007). Parameters estimation of some water infiltration models to soil by using of transmission functions. Iranian Journal of Irrigation and Drainage, 1 (1): 21-39. Dashtaki SG, Homaee M, Mahdian M (2009). Estimation of soil water infiltration parameters into soil by using of neural networks . Soil and water journal (Agricultural Science and Technology), 23 (1): 185 198. PMEWA (Publications of Ministry of EnergyWater Affairs) (1990). The manual of water infiltration rate measurment into soil by double ring method. Rahimi A, Kashkooli H (2006). The assessment and determination of water infiltration models in lands of agriculture faculty of Islamic Azad University of Sanandaj. The first national conference on irrigation and drainage networks management.pp:195-203. Rahnama, M. and Rezaee Moghaddam. P. H. 2007. Determination of infiltration model coefficients and infiltration equations in soil in the plains around iron-stone mine of Gol Gar in Sirjan. 9th global seminar on irrigation and reducing evaporation. Safi B (1995). Drip irrigation system design for green space development. MS thesis, Agriculture Department, Tabriz University. Sedigh AL (1989). Assessment of rain water infiltration in dry soil until the saturated stages of soil surface. Agriculture Science Magezine, 1 (1): 41- 64. Zadeh AJ, Kasraee R, Neyshaboori M (1995). Final report of research design of comparative studies on 18000hectar of lands in Karaj research station. Publication of research affairs of Tabriz University.

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