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<ptfkit/ahuja1984.h>

#include <ptfkit/ahuja1984.h>

Ahuja et al. (1984), effective-porosity relations for saturated conductivity.

Source

Ahuja, L. R., Naney, J. W., Green, R. E., & Nielsen, D. R. (1984). Macroporosity to characterize spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity and effects of land management. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 48, 699-702.

Scope

Territory: Chickasha, Oklahoma, and the Wahiawa Plateau, Oahu, Hawaii, USA

Dataset: Undisturbed cores from 15 sites in a 9.6-ha Renfro silt loam watershed and 54 cores from three related Hawaii Oxic soils; the Hawaii study also supplied 35 field measurements of saturated hydraulic conductivity.

PTF catalog page

Functions

calc_ptf_ahuja1984

Estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from total porosity and water content at -33 kPa using user-supplied empirical coefficients.

static inline double calc_ptf_ahuja1984(double total_porosity, double theta_33, double coefficient_b, double exponent_n);

Parameters

Name Direction Description
total_porosity in Total porosity; in the experiments it was taken as saturated volumetric water content. (cm^3/cm^3)
theta_33 in Volumetric soil water content at -33 kPa pressure head. (cm^3/cm^3)
coefficient_b in Soil-specific empirical coefficient in the generalized Kozeny-Carman relation. (cm/h)
exponent_n in Empirical exponent; the paper evaluates values of 4 and 5 for deriving conductivity scaling-factor distributions. (1)

Returns

Saturated hydraulic conductivity. (cm/h)

Note

Effective porosity is total_porosity - theta_33; the paper notes that field capacity is not a precisely defined soil parameter.

Note

Soil-core fitted exponents were near 4, whereas the smaller Hawaii field dataset had a fitted slope of 1.59 over a narrower effective-porosity range.

Warning

The empirical coefficient B varies with soil type; callers must supply a coefficient calibrated for the soil being evaluated.

Warning

Callers must supply the exponent. The paper evaluates both n = 4 and n = 5 and does not select one as a unique transferable value.

Warning

total_porosity must be greater than or equal to theta_33.