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A Similarity During Early Stages of Rain Infiltration¹

ABSTRACT

A similarity is shown to exist during early stages of rain infiltration into a relatively dry soil in which the diffusivity varies exponentially with the water content. The similarity leads to simple expressions for describing the wet-front progress and the water-content change at the soil surface. The wet-front equation adequately describes the experimental data for four different soils. The approach can be extended to some cases of rainfall when the intensity is time-dependent, and to infiltration with transient surface sealing.

¹ Contribution from the Dept. of Agronomy and Soil Science, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96822, and the Agr. Res. Ser., USDA, in cooperation with Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. Journal Series no. 1675, Hawaii Agr. Exp. Sta. The research was partially supported by 211 d funds granted to the University of Hawaii by the US Agency for International Development.

² Assistant Soil Scientist, University of Hawaii, and Soil Scientist, USDA—Purdue University, respectively.

Received for publication October 3, 1973. Accepted for publication January 30, 1974.