AUTOMATED INFILTROMETER FOR DETERMINATION OF SOIL HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES

Not Available The ability to measure the hydraulic infiltration and permeability properties of soils and various geotechnical materials is a growing need in science and engineering with the increased emphasis on groundwater quality protection, water conservation, erosion control and other water relevant issues. These measurements have classically been performed on soils using various forms of infiltrometer and permeameter technologies. Examples, include tension infiltrometers and constant head permeameters for measuring hydraulic conductivity under unsaturated and saturated conditions, respectively. Most of these existing instruments provide a constant pressure or tension at the soil interface with the infiltration characteristics measured over time. These existing technologies require a large amount of manual user intervention from a small select group of highly qualified scientific personnel to perform the measurements due to the lack of automated pressure control as well as the absence of embedded interpretation software. This SBIR project is undertaking the research and development of an automated infiltrometer design that controls the pressure at the soil interface with high precision at user-settable profiles vs. time. Phase I has demonstrated the feasibility of developing such a product and Phase II will involve the development of the technology. This improved tool offers great flexibility and ease of use.