Soil Science Society of America Journal 64:1931-1939 (2000)
© 2000 Soil Science Society of America
DIVISION S-1-SOIL PHYSICS
Estimation of Soil Solution Electrical Conductivity from Bulk Soil Electrical Conductivity in Sandy Soils
G. Amente,
John M. Baker and
Clive F. Reece
Univ. of Minnesota, Dep. of Soil, Water, and Climate, St. Paul, MN 55108 USA
jbaker{at}soils.umn.edu
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ABSTRACT
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Studies of solute transport through soil and attendant environmental impacts are hampered by the lack of methods for continuous monitoring of solute concentration. Measurement of bulk soil electrical conductivity (ECb) using time domain reflectometry (TDR) is a promising technique, but it is indirect, and estimation of solute concentration from such measurements requires a model relating soil solution electrical conductivity (ECw) to ECb. Several models of varying complexity exist, but further testing is required to determine their relative merits and applicability. This study was conducted to determine the efficiency of various models that use different methods of estimating the tortuosity factor, Fg, in order to estimate ECw from ECb. All models assume that the ratio of ECb/ECw is proportional to soil water content,
, with Fg as the coefficient of proportionality. In this study, two types of models were compared, those in which Fg is obtained from soil hydraulic properties and those in which Fg is estimated as it is in gas diffusion models, except with
rather than porosity as the independent variable. Measurements were conducted in a sandy soil, across a range of ECw from 0.10 to 0.56 S m-1. The models in which Fg is obtained from soil hydraulic properties did not perform as expected. The results with the gas diffusion analog models were variable; the most successful of these was based on the 1959 model of Marshall, in which Fg is a power function of
,
b. Optimal results were obtained with
, not far from Marshall's suggested value of 0.5 for gas diffusion. We conclude that there is no benefit to the use of soil hydraulic properties in estimating ECw from ECb measurements, at least for sandy soils, where simpler relationships appear to provide superior results.
Abbreviations: BVG, Burdinevan Genuchten model ECb, bulk soil electrical conductivity ECw, solution electrical conductivity Fg, tortuosity factor Fg(MF1), first Fg prediction method of the MualemFriedman model Fg(MF2), second Fg prediction method of the MualemFriedman model MVG, Mualemvan Genuchten model PIM, Pulse Input Method SIM, Step Input Method TDR, time domain reflectometry %Clay, percentage clay
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INTRODUCTION
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THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES on groundwater quality requires studying solute transport through soils. This is a difficult research problem because solute concentrations in soil water are not easy to measure. Solution samplers are often employed, but their use is limited to the matric potential range of 0 to perhaps -0.1 MPa, and they provide temporally discrete rather than continuous data, so that critical periods are easily missed.
The development of TDR as a method for automated, in situ measurement of ECb offers the promise of improved temporal resolution in tackling solute movement. However, estimation of concentration of conservative solutes from ECb requires either determination of a direct relationship between ECb and the concentration, or an intermediate step of secondary calibration such that concentration can be determined from ECw. Under specific conditions of constant
and temperature, concentration of soil solution can be directly determined from TDR-measured ECb (Kachanoski et al., 1992) by assuming a linear relationship between ECb and ECw. Techniques like the Step Input Method (SIM) (Ward et al., 1994; Mallants et al., 1996), and the Pulse Input Method (PIM) (Ward et al., 1994; Kim et al., 1998) make use of this approach and directly estimate solute concentration from ECb. However, both the SIM and PIM calibration techniques are site specific, and therefore it is necessary to obtain independent calibrations for individual soils.
An alternative method of obtaining solute concentration from ECb is a two-step process. First, ECw is obtained from ECb using some type of functional relationship between the two; then concentration is estimated from ECw. Relating ECw to ECb requires an independent calibration. Conceptual models, such as those developed by Rhoades et al. (1976) and Nadler (1982), relate ECb to ECw using empirical constants. These models require preliminary measurements of ECb, ECw, and
to obtain the empirical constants. Others use physical parameters that can be determined from other measurable soil parameters, such as soil hydraulic properties in the form of tortuosity factors, Fg (Mualem and Friedman, 1991; Heimovaara et al., 1995). It is easier to use these latter models with soils for which the hydraulic parameters have already been measured, eliminating the need for an independent experiment. The third method is the three-pathway model (Rhoades et al., 1989), which partitions soil water into mobile and immobile fractions and makes use of these fractions to relate ECb to ECw. There is theoretical merit in this third method, but there remain practical limitations in estimating the mobile and immobile water fractions accurately. Despite the difficulties encountered in developing precise functional relations between ECb and ECw, conceptual models impose fewer practical restrictions and thus can be used under more typical field conditions, for example, variable
(Persson, 1997).
The soil liquid and solid fractions both contribute to the total soil EC. The contribution of the solid fraction depends on the number of exchangeable ions adsorbed to the surfaces of clay and organic matter (Nadler and Frenkel, 1980). This contribution tends to depend on
(Rhoades et al., 1989) because a reduction in
results in increased Coulomb interactions, due to attractions between the free ions and the solid particles. Polarization, dispersion, and the arrangement of water molecules close to the clay surfaces (Cremers et al., 1966) have influence on the EC of soil solids. The combined effects of these interactions make the contribution of the solid fraction to ECb complex. The contribution of ECw to ECb can also depend on the concentration of the soil solution, but generally the two are assumed to be linearly related for ECw above 0.1 S m-1 (Rhoades et al., 1989), with
Fg acting as a proportionality factor. Models differ in the way they estimate tortuosity factor and its effects on ECb.
At present, use of these models is constrained by uncertainty about their accuracy and their applicability to different soil types. The objectives of this study were (i) to test the various models used to express ECb as a function of Fg,
, and ECw; and (ii) to suggest the model that best estimates ECw at least for the particular soil used.
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Theory
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Conceptual Model with Empirical Parameters
In a two-pathway model (Rhoades et al., 1976), electrical conduction is assumed to take place along two parallel conducting paths. The predominant path is through the soil solution, ECw, also known as pore water electrical conductivity. The contribution of the solid fraction, ECs, takes place along the continuous films of exchangeable cations residing on the surface of the solid particles. According to this model, ECb at constant
is linearly related to ECw
 | (1) |
The geometric factor
, where the empirical constants a and b show some degree of dependence on the arrangement and size of the soil particles. The two constants can be estimated by fitting ECb against
measured under conditions of constant ECw (Rhoades et al., 1976). Substitution for Fg in Eq. [1] gives
 | (2) |
For a constant ECw, ECb can be explained as a function of
alone. This technique of keeping ECw constant is used in the determination of the two constants, a and b. Under field conditions, however, ECw is rarely constant because of changes in
due to evaporation, drainage, or infiltration. According to Eq. [2], ECs is assumed to be independent of
, and it can be determined by curve fitting. It can also be estimated from the clay percentage (%Clay) using the relation
 | (3) |
The constants, c and d are obtained from a linear plot of ECb of oven-dry soil measured under the same packing geometry against %Clay. Rhoades et al. (1989) obtained
and
for ECs measured in decisiemens per meter. These values are site specific and are expected to vary among soils depending on the percentages and types of clay minerals.
Estimation of Tortuosity Factor from Soil Hydraulic Properties
Estimation of Fg becomes more complicated when Fg is dependent on the geometry of soil in addition to
. The real challenge in using conceptual models is therefore finding a relation between Fg and
without using empirical constants. One such approach, the MualemFriedman model (Mualem and Friedman, 1991) theorizes that Fg can be derived from the ratio of hydraulic conductivity of water in soil to that of capillary bundles with identical water retention, and is expressed as
 | (4) |
where Ks(
) and Kc(
) represent hydraulic conductivities of the soil and the corresponding capillary bundle, respectively. The two hydraulic conductivities can be derived from the matric potential function, h, using the equation
 | (5a) |
and
 | (5b) |
where
is the relative saturation, and
-
r represents the effective water content,
eff, with
s and
r symbolizing saturation and residual water contents, respectively (Mualem, 1976). The integrals in Eq. [5a] and [5b] can be solved if the relationship between h and Se is known. One such relation is a power-function relation between h and Se
 | (6) |
where hcr represents the bubbling pressure and the fitting parameter,
is a constant also known as pore-size distribution index (Brooks and Corey, 1964). Substituting Eq. [6] in Eq. [5a] and [5b], and solving Eq. [4] gives
 | (7a) |
where
 | (7b) |
The latter equation can be approximated to unity for coarse-textured soils with large
(Mualem and Friedman, 1991), thereby simplifying the relation between ECb and ECw to the form
 | (8) |
The expression in parentheses is the new tortuosity (geometric) factor with the
eff exponent, ß + 1, representing the saturation index. If ECb is expressed solely as a function of
eff and ECw, the total power of
eff will be ß + 2. The constant ß is the same parameter used in the hydraulic conductivity formulation for which Mualem (1976) obtained values ranging from -1.0 to 2.5, with 0.5 applicable to most soils. This value of 0.5 is observed when F(
) is constrained to unity (Kelly and Kalinski, 1993). Fg obtained from Eq. [7a] with
is hereafter referred to as Fg(MF1) to indicate that it is the first Fg prediction method of the MualemFriedman model.
A better estimation of the soil water retention parameters can be obtained using van Genuchten's formulation
 | (9) |
where n and m are parametric constants known as soil water retention parameters, and
is the reciprocal of the bubbling pressure, hcr, used in Eq. [6] (van Genuchten, 1980). A problem in solving Eq. [5a] and [5b] with Se expressed as in Eq. [9] is the difficulty in finding solution to both integrals using the same parameter m. Thus, Heimovaara et al. (1995) used two different values of m estimated using two different models in order to solve the integrals in the numerator and the denominator separately. The two models are the Mualemvan Genuchten (MVG) model in which the parameters n and m are related as m = 1 - 1/n and the Burdinevan Genuchten (BVG) model with
(U.S. Salinity Laboratory Staff, 1994). Solving the numerator and the denominator of Eq. [4] using water retention parameters obtained using MVG and BVG, respectively, gives
 | (10a) |
where
 | (10b) |
with the same parametric constant, ß, as the one used in Eq. [8]. The expression of Fg in this case is similar to that of Eq. [7a], with F(m) playing the role of F(
). Fg obtained using Eq. [10a] is hereafter referred to as Fg(MF2) to indicate that it is the second form of expression of Fg obtained by the MualemFriedman model. Using this Fg form, ECb can finally be expressed as
 | (11) |
Equation [11] requires three constants, m, m*, and ß (two if ß is fixed to 0.5), which in turn require three (two water retention and one hydraulic conductivity) models to estimate ECw from ECb (Heimovaara et al., 1995). Note that the exponent of
eff in Eq. [11] increased from ß to ß + 1 due to the additional
eff dependency of ECb besides Fg. The constant ß may either be fixed to 0.5 or else its precise value for a specific soil can be obtained from
 | (12) |
using predetermined values of saturated hydraulic conductivity, K(
s), and water retention parameter m (van Genuchten, 1980).
Estimating Fg Using Diffusion Models
Another method by which the tortuosity factor is obtained is from the models of gas or liquid diffusion in soil. The drift of ions in porous media is influenced by tortuosity, reduction in the effective fluidity of water near solid (especially clay) particles, and reduction in the mobility of ions due to electrical interaction between the solid particles and the ions (Low, 1962). Although electrical interaction, polarization, and dispersion effects on ionic movement may not be fully represented as tortuosity effects alone (Cremers et al., 1966), tortuosity factors based on gaseous diffusion models may incorporate them better than factors estimated from soil hydraulic conductivity parameters. In the past, attempts have been made to estimate diffusion constants using electrical conduction techniques (Shainberg and Kemper, 1966), and the technique of using diffusion models for estimation of tortuosity factor is similarly reasonable.
Different approaches were used to estimate the scaling factor that relates gaseous and liquid diffusions to porosity and water content, respectively. Penman (1940) considered gaseous diffusion to be dependent on porosity,
, as
, where De and D are diffusivities in soil and in air, respectively. The coefficient, a, accounts for tortuosity effects and hence may serve as a surrogate for Fg. Penman experimentally obtained a value for a of 0.66, whereas De Vries (1950) and van Bavel (1952) obtained 0.62 and 0.58, respectively. Others (Marshall, 1959; Millington, 1959; Millington and Quirk, 1961) have considered a to be a power function of porosity. Considering the viscous flow of fluids in the presence of obstructing effects of solids, Marshall theoretically obtained an approximate estimate for a to be 
, where the pore size factor is neglected. Using the factor 
as a gives
. Millington (1959) found the De/D to be
4/3, which gives a porosity factor of
1/3 serving as the coefficient (instead of a) in Penman's relation. Millington and Quirk (1961) used
for diffusion in pores partly filled with water that gives a porosity factor of
7/3/
2. Sallam et al. (1984) found a better fit when the exponent 10/3 was replaced with 3.10.
Estimates of the parameter a based on porosity work relatively well to model gas flow in porous media. By analogy, tortuosity effects in unsaturated soil should be dependent on
(Ryan and Cohen, 1990). Common to the different diffusion models mentioned so far is that the porosity remains a factor, while the factor a may be expressed in any one of the above forms, with the bulk soil EC expressed as
 | (13) |
Fg may assume the form Fg(P) = constant,
, or
. Uses of Eq. [13] with these Fg forms are referred to as diffusion analog models. Fg(P), Fg(M), and Fg(MQ) stand for tortuosity factors estimated by Penman, Marshall, and Millington and Quirk models, respectively.
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Materials and methods
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The soil used in this experiment was sampled from the C2 horizon (at 120-cm depth) of Verndale sandy loam, a frigid Typic Argiudolls obtained from the Central Minnesota Agriculture Experiment Station, Staples, MN. The soil at this depth consisted of 96.5% sand, 2.5% silt, and 1% clay.
Soil Column Preparation
Six Tempe cells with ceramic plates of 47.2-cm2 cross-sectional area and 0.5-cm plate thickness were used for the soil columns, contained in polyvinyl chloride pipe of 7.75-cm i.d. and 15-cm length. The upper acrylic portion of each Tempe cell cover was drilled at
1.5 cm off center to make a hole sufficient to allow the passage of a bayonet connector and cable. A rubber stopper was used to plug the hole and silicone was applied to seal the interstice made to accommodate the cable. Two-wire TDR probes of 10-cm length, 0.2-cm diam., and 1.57-cm spacing were used in this experiment.
Each column was packed to 11.85-cm depth with oven-dried and mechanically mixed soil to a uniform bulk density of 1.5 Mg m-3. A small space of
3 cm was left above the soil surface to allow centering of the waveguide before the top cover was set in place and tightly secured with butterfly nuts (Fig. 1)
.

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Fig. 1 Setup of soil column experiments showing waveguide orientation and connections of drain test tubes used to collect effluent
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Applications of Salt Solutions
Potassium chloride was used to obtain different soil solution conductivities. A total of eight levels of ECw ranging from 0.10 to 0.56 S m-1 were used, with the salt solution applied at the top of each column using a hand operated 60-mL syringe. Subsequent saturation and draining was used repeatedly until the ECw of the effluent matched the ECw of the initially added solution. Effluent was collected at the bottom of the columns both during saturation and during transient flow experiments.
Measurements and Computations of Soil ECb and 
Before commencement of ECb and
measurements, the upper cover of each soil column was connected to a common regulated pressure system (Fig. 1). A copper-constantan thermocouple was connected to the surface of one of the columns and temperature was measured with a data logger (CR10, Campbell Scientific, Logan, UT). A 1502C metallic Tektronix cable tester (Tektronix, Beaverton, OR) was interfaced to a PC to control the TDR, retrieve data, and display the waveforms. The program developed by Baker and Allmaras (1990) and later modified by Spaans and Baker (1993) was used to retrieve values of soil conductance and pulse travel times and to view the waveforms on the computer screen. Measurements were conducted under the faster, more convenient transient flow conditions with
varied by applying step-wise increases in pressure to the soil columns. The TDR measurements of soil conductance and pulse travel time commenced with the soil at saturation at atmospheric pressure. Pressure at the inlet ends was then gradually increased up to 0.1 MPa (1021-cm H2O), and measurements were taken by sequentially connecting each waveguide to the TDR. Effluent of
5 mL was collected in each test tube prior to changing the pressure to the next level. The collected effluent was weighed to counter-check TDR-measured
and a small part of the sample was also reserved to measure ECw. Effluent ECw was measured using the Horiba B-173 twin conductivity meter (Cole-Parmer Inst., Vernon Hills, IL). The measured ECw was used to check the variability of solute concentration during the draining process and to compare with the concentration of the initial solution prepared for saturation.
Separate experiments were conducted to obtain water characteristic curves from which water retention parameters were estimated using the MVG and BVG models (U.S. Salinity Staff, 1994).
Each measured travel time (ts) of a signal in soil was first converted to apparent dielectric permittivity of the soil,
, using the relation
, where L and co symbolize TDR probe length and the speed of light in air, respectively. Volumetric soil water content was then obtained from
using the Topp et al. (1980) empirical relation
 | (14) |
A separate calibration of
vs.
for this soil showed very good agreement with Eq. [14]. Measured total electrical conductance (1/Rtot) was converted to ECb using the relation
 | (15) |
is the probe constant obtained from probe dimensions s and d representing probe separation and probe diameter, respectively. Rc is the cable resistance with its measured value of 0.4
subtracted from Rtot to improve estimation of ECb (Heimovaara et al., 1995).
Temperature Calibration of ECb
A separate experiment was conducted to measure the dependence of ECb on temperature. A soil column was prepared by packing it with oven-dried soil to a bulk density of 1.5 Mg m-3, then saturating it with 0.01 M KCl solution. A two-wire TDR probe of 10-cm length was vertically inserted into the column; then the top and bottom of the column were completely covered to minimize evaporative losses and to maintain a constant
. A copper-constantan thermocouple was inserted in the soil to monitor temperature. Measurements of ECb,
, and temperature were taken as the soil temperature was raised from
12 to 50°C by gradually heating the column in an oven set at 60°C. Then the measurements were repeated as the soil was gradually cooled to 2°C. The thermal coefficient (
) was then determined using the relation
 | (16) |
and by plotting ECb against T - 25 from which a bulk soil electrical conductivity normalized to 25°C, EC25b, was obtained as an intercept, and
EC25b as the slope.
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Results and discussion
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Maintaining Constant ECw during the Transient Flow Experiment
It is generally not easy to monitor ECw during a transient flow experiment. For this experiment, a uniform ECw was created by repeatedly saturating the soil with solution of known concentration and draining it until the concentration of the effluent equaled the concentration of the initial solution. The number of pore volumes required to bring the soil to equilibrium concentration was determined by subsequent measurement of effluent ECw after every pore volume addition of solution, and it varied with the residence time of the solute. As many as five to six pore volumes were required to attain equilibrium concentrations when saturation was followed by draining, whereas two to three pore volumes were enough when the residence time of the salt solution in the soil was increased. This was achieved by stopping the drainage for
12 h or longer after every saturation. Longer residence time gave the solutes more time to diffuse from the mobile region of the soil to the immobile region.
Experimentally Determined Fg
ECb was first corrected to a temperature of 25°C using a thermal coefficient,
, of 0.019 mS m-1 °C-1. This
value, obtained from the slope and intercept of a linear fit between the plot of ECb against T - 25, as indicated in Eq. [16], agreed well with the result obtained by Heimovaara et al. (1995). Plots of temperature-corrected ECb, EC25b, against
give families of curves corresponding with a constant ECw (Fig. 2)
. With the superscript in EC25b dropped, ECb hereafter represents temperature-normalized EC. By fitting each of these curves with a second-order polynomial, it is possible to obtain Fg using
as indicated in Eq. [2]. Theoretically, the intercepts of the curves give ECs, but occasionally we observed negative intercepts (Fig. 2) for this soil with a clay content of only 1%. These small negative intercepts may not have much practical significance. Figure 2 shows a nearly identical critical water content at which ECb becomes zero. Essentially the soil becomes a nonconductor below this critical water content.
Better estimates of both Fg and ECs can be made by arbitrarily selecting water content values and evaluating ECb corresponding with different ECw at the same
. This is represented in Fig. 3 , where each slope represents
Fg and the intercepts represent ECs. Unlike the polynomial fits (Fig. 2), the linear fits in Fig. 3 all have positive intercepts (nonnegative values of ECs). The linear fit (r2) improves as
increases, confirming the problem in accurately estimating the relationship between ECb and ECw at very low
.

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Fig. 3 Changes in temperature corrected ECb with ECw evaluated from curve-fit of Fig. 1 shown for eight arbitrarily selected water contents. The solid lines represent linear regression lines
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The dependence of Fg on
may be represented in a linear form (Eq. [1]) or in a power form (Eq. [7a] or any one of the forms associated with Eq. [13]). Table 1
shows the statistical summary of the two forms of representations of Fg. As shown in the table, comparisons of the standard error and r2 indicate a more accurate relationship between Fg and
while using a power form than a linear form of
.
Dependence of ECs on Soil Water Content and Estimation of
eff
Fg can be related to
as shown in Table 1. However, it is necessary to relate Fg to
eff in order to make comparisons, since Fg estimated from soil hydraulic parameters are related to
eff instead of
. The values of ECs (intercepts observed in Fig. 3) at different water contents appear to be the same, but are actually different. A plot of these intercepts against
is shown in Fig. 4
. Because of this water content dependence of ECs, it does not seem appropriate to consider ECs as a constant. The fact that ECs increases with increase in soil water content indicates a relationship between ECs and the conductivity contributed by the immobile fraction of the soil solution, ECim, as previously suggested by Rhoades et al. (1989).
Figure 4 reveals a nonlinear relation between ECs and
in which
at
. This may be considered a residual water content,
r, below which no soil electrical conduction takes place. A comparison with soil water retention parameters in Table 2
shows that this value of
r is close to the hydraulically estimated residual water content of 0.037 m3 m-3. Presumably
r represents a water content at which discontinuities appear in the water films bridging the soil solid particles, preventing electrical conduction.
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Table 2 Soil water retention parameters obtained using Mualemvan Genuchten (MVG, m = 1 - 1/n) and Burdinevan Genuchten (BVG, m = 1 - 2/n) models
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Comparisons of Predicted vs. Experimentally Determined Fg
Geometric factors obtained from both soil hydraulic properties and gaseous diffusion models with their predicted parameters are shown in Fig. 5
along with the experimentally determined Fg. It appears that none of the models could predict the experimentally determined Fg to within 95% confidence limits across the entire range of
eff, except one (with
) of the gas diffusion analogs, Fg(M). The main benefit of this model is its simplicity, for it requires only
to estimate Fg. In the MualemFriedman model F(
) (Eq. 7b) was approximated to unity for coarse-textured soils. If similar approximation is made for F(m) in Eq. [11], the equality between Marshall's diffusion model (with
) and MF2, (Eq. [11] with
) becomes evident. This reveals the agreement between the two models under certain conditions, for example, when used on coarse-textured soils. Constraining F(
) or F(m) to unity may not work for other soil types, but it eliminates the lengthy process of obtaining soil hydraulic parameters, at least for coarse-textured soils. When the different parameters (water retention parameters, b, or ß) used in each model are estimated by curve fitting and used instead of the predicted values, Fig. 6
is obtained. With the
eff powers optimized, the models based on soil hydraulic parameters still did not show much improvement. The disparity among models for such a sandy soil was somewhat unexpected.

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Fig. 5 Experimentally determined geometric factor, Fg(expt), shown with Fg predicted using the following models: MualemFriedman Method 1, Fg(MF1) = ( eff)(ß+1)/( s - r); MualemFriedman Method 2, Fg(MF2) = F(m)( eff)ß, with ß = 0.5; Marshall's method, Fg(M) = ( eff)b, with b = 0.5; Millington and Quirk's method, Fg(MQ) = ( eff)c/( s - r)2, with c = 10/3; and Penman's method, Fg(P) = 0.66
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The shape of the Fg vs.
eff curve can provide a clue about the similarities and differences between the different models. The geometric factor, Fg, which is assumed to be a reciprocal of tortuosity, is expected to always be <1. Because soil water content for most mineral soils is less than or equal to 0.5, 1.0 is the upper boundary (asymptote) regardless of the power of
. In order to asymptotically approach this line, the curve defined by Fg -
eff must be concave downwards, not upwards. The two curves satisfying this condition are Fg(expt) and Fg(M) as depicted in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. If we consider two of the models, Fg(MF1) and Fg(MQ), which make use of saturated water content as an additional factor, we observe (Fig. 5 and 6) that the inclusion of this factor has adversely affected estimations of Fg. Even when optimization was performed on the power of
eff, the model could not accurately estimate Fg(expt). The adequacy of Fg estimated using Marshall's model indicates that electrical tortuosity for coarse textured soil can be explained by using water content alone, unlike hydraulic tortuosity, which is a function of both
and particle arrangement of the soil. This is in agreement with the MualemFriedman model with F(
) constrained to unity. Since
s is a constant for a given soil, the choice of using saturated water content in the formulation depends on whether or not a constant coefficient other than unity is required in the power form.
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Summary and conclusions
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Three conceptual models relating ECb, ECw, and
were tested using a sandy soil. All of them assume that the ratio of ECb/ECw is proportional to
, with the coefficient of proportionality typically called a tortuosity factor, Fg. The best fit to the measured data was obtained with a model that assumes the tortuosity factor is a power function of
,
b. This model was derived from a model for gas diffusion in soil (Marshall, 1959) on the assumption that electrical conduction and diffusion are analogous processes. The commonly used model of Rhoades et al. (1976), which describes the geometric or tortuosity factor
as a transmission factor, also fits the data quite well but not as close as
b. The two models that attempt to estimate the tortuosity factor using soil hydraulic properties did not show satisfactory results when the hydraulic parameters were included in the models.Millington Quirk 1959
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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The authors would like to thank the Fulbright and MacArthur Programs for the financial support necessary to carry out this research.
Received for publication February 21, 2000.
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