Pedosphere 19(1): 104110, 2009

ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P

c 2009 Soil Science Society of China

Published by Elsevier Limited and Science Press

An Analytical Solution for One-Dimensional Water Inltration

and Redistribution in Unsaturated Soil1
WANG Quan-Jiu1,2 , R. HORTON3 and FAN Jun2
1 Institute of Water Resources Research, Xian University of Technology, Xian 710048 (China). E-mail: wquanjiu
@163.com
2 State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100 (China)
3 Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 (USA)

(Received February 14, 2008; revised November 16, 2008)

ABSTRACT
Soil inltration and redistribution are important processes in eld water cycle, and it is necessary to develop a
simple model to describe the processes. In this study, an algebraic solution for one-dimensional water inltration and
redistribution without evaporation in unsaturated soil was developed based on Richards equation. The algebraic solution
had three parameters, namely, the saturated water conductivity, the comprehensive shape coecient of the soil water
content distribution, and the soil suction allocation coecient. To analyze the physical features of these parameters,
a relationship between the Green-Ampt model and the algebraic solution was established. The three parameters were
estimated based on experimental observations, whereas the soil water content and the water inltration duration were
calculated using the algebraic solution. The calculated soil water content and inltration duration were compared with
the experimental observations, and the results indicated that the algebraic solution accurately described the unsaturated
soil water ow processes.
Key Words:

algebraic solution, Green-Ampt model, soil water inltration and redistribution, unsaturated soil

Citation: Wang, Q. J., Horton, R. and Fan, J. 2009. An analytical solution for one-dimensional water inltration and
redistribution in unsaturated soil. Pedosphere. 19(1): 104110.

INTRODUCTION
Soil water ow is an important process in the global water cycle. The important tasks related to
the study of soil water movement are the determination of soil water content distribution, soil water
inltration, soil storage capacity, and plant water uptake. Several soil water models describing soil
inltration processes have been developed (Green and Ampt, 1911; Parlange, 1971, 1972; Parlange et
al., 1992, 1997; Basha, 1999). Wang et al. (2003) presented an algebraic solution for describing the
unsaturated soil water movement. The solution used the short time assumption of Parlange (1971) in
which the change in water content with time was assumed to be small relative to the rate of ux change
with distance. Thus, the time-dependent changing ux rate was cancelled, and the water ux was
assumed to be uniform in the wetted soil prole.
Redistribution of soil water following an inltration event is an important process in the eld water
cycle. Knowledge of water redistribution is also required to determine whether water or solutes can
penetrate the root zone. Some models have been developed to describe soil water redistribution (Alway
and McDole, 1917; Youngs, 1958; Bresler et al., 1969; Staple, 1969; Gardner et al., 1970; Youngs and
Poulovassilis, 1976; Smith, 1999; Shao and Horton, 2000). It is necessary to develop simple models to
analyze water inltration and redistribution processes. In this study, an analytical solution to describe
1 Project

supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KSCX2-YW-N-003),
the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2005CB121103), and the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 50879067).

SOIL WATER INFILTRATION AND REDISTRIBUTION

105

the unsaturated soil water movement during inltration and redistribution without evaporation was
developed based on the algebraic model of Wang et al. (2003); the relationship between the proposed
model and the Green-Ampt model (1911) was analyzed; a description of how to estimate the model
parameters was included; and the model was tested against experimental data.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Theory
The soil water retention curve used in this study is described as follows (Brooks and Corey, 1964):
 h N
r
d
=
s r
h

(1)

where is the soil water content (cm3 cm3 ), r is the residual water content (cm3 cm3 ), s is the
saturated water content (cm3 cm3 ), hd is the air entry suction (cm), h is the soil water suction
corresponding to the water content, and N is an empirical parameter.
The unsaturated soil conductivity k (cm min1 ) is expressed as follows (Brooks and Corey, 1964):
k(h) = ks

 h M
d

(2)

or
k() = ks

 M/N
r

s r

(3)

where ks is the saturated conductivity (cm min1 ), and M is an empirical parameter.

For one-dimensional, vertical soil water movement, the Richards equation is:



k()
=
D()

t
z
z
z

(4)

where t is the time, D() is the soil water diusivity, and z is the vertical coordinate, positive downward.
The initial and boundary conditions for inltration are: (z, 0) = i , (0, t) = s , and (, t) = i ,
where i is initial water content (cm3 cm3 ). Setting the time at zero for the beginning of redistribution
just after inltration ceases, the boundary conditions for redistribution are: (0, 0) = s and (, t) = i .
Inltration model
When the initial soil water content is small and can be approximated as r = i , integrating Eq. 4
with the algebraic model from Wang et al. (2003) for soil water provides the following four equations:


z 
= 1
(s i ) + i z zf
zf
(5)

= i
z > zf
F =

(s i )zf
1+

(6)

f=

ks
+ ks
zf

(7)

t=

(s i ) 
ln(zf + 1) 
zf
(1 + )ks

(8)

where zf is the wetting front distance, referring to the distance from the soil surface to the bottom of the

106

Q. J. WANG et al.

wetted soil layer; = N/M , the comprehensive shape coecient of the soil water content distribution,
which determines the amount of water in a soil prole for a xed wetting front distance; is a soil
suction allocation coecient; F is the cumulative inltration; and f is the inltration rate. = M/a,
where a is a constant.
The Green-Ampt model (Green and Ampt, 1911) describing soil water inltration can be written
as:
i=

k s hs
+ ks
zs

(9)

I = (s i )zs
t=

(10)


s i 
zs 
zs hs ln 1 +
ks
hs

(11)

where i is the inltration rate, hs is the suction at the wetting front, I is the cumulative inltration,
and zs is the wetting front distance in the Green-Ampt model.
Letting:
zs =

zf
1+

(12)

hs =

1
(1 + )

(13)

and substituting Eqs. 12 and 13 into Eqs. 68, the Green-Ampt model can be obtained.
Redistribution model
The redistribution of soil water is an internal drainage process. We consider the redistribution as a
continuous process of inltration assuming that soil water hysteresis is negligible during this redistribution. Inltration and redistribution processes can easily be combined.
Following Wang et al. (2003), the Richards equation can be analyzed as:
1
dk
dz =
h
M (q(t) k)

(14)

M
dk
dz =
h
q(t) k

(15)

where q(t) is the internal drainage rate, and k is the unsaturated soil water conductivity. Integrating
Eq. 15 leads to:

M
dz =
h

kz

k0

dk
q(t) k

(16)

where k0 is the hydraulic conductivity at the soil surface, and kz is the hydraulic conductivity corresponding to the distance z:
z=

ds
h

Letting
0

ln

q(t) kz
q(t) k0

ds
1
=
, Eq. 17 is converted to:
h
ahd

(17)

SOIL WATER INFILTRATION AND REDISTRIBUTION

z=

1 q(t) kz
ln
q(t) k0

107

(18)

When z is at the wetting front, zf , and the initial water content is low, the corresponding hydraulic
conductivity is also small; thus, Eq. 18 reduces to:
q(t) =

k0
+ k0
zf

The unsaturated conductivity at any distance z is:

Mz 
k = q(t) (q(t) k0 ) exp
ahd
When r = i , Eq. 20 is approximated by a Taylor series and combined with Eq. 19:

z 
(0 r ) + r
= 1
zf

(19)

(20)

(21)

Integrating Eq. 21, the water amount (W ) retained in the soil prole is expressed as:
W =

1
(0 i )zf
1+

(22)

For soil moisture redistribution, the water retained in the soil prole is a constant. Thus, the water
content (0 ) at the soil surface changes as the wetting front advances. According to Eq. 22, the water
content (0 ) at the soil surface is a function of the wetting front distance and:
0 (ti+1 ) =

(0 (ti ) i )zf (ti )

+ i
zf (ti+1 )

(23)

where 0 (ti+1 ) and 0 (ti ) are the water contents at soil surface associated with wetting front distances
zf (ti+1 ) and zf (ti ) at time i and time i + 1, respectively.
With the development of internal drainage processes, the soil water content of the upper part of the
prole decreased, and the soil water content of the lower part increased. For any wetting front distance
interval, zf (zf = zf (ti+1 ) zf (ti )), the soil water content distribution prole for the wetting front
distance, zf (ti+1 ), must intersect with the soil water content prole for zf (ti ) at a certain soil depth.
According to Eq. 20, the intersect depth (zs ) may be expressed as:
 (t ) 1/
0 i
i
0 (ti+1 ) i
zs =
1
1  0 (ti ) i 1/

zf (ti+1 ) zf (ti ) 0 (ti+1 ) i

1

(24)

Thus, the internal drainage associated with the wetting front distance interval zf can be calculated.
According to Eq. 21, the internal drainage amount (Wid ) is:






1
zs 1+
Wid =
zf (ti )(0 (ti ) i ) 1 1
zf (ti+1 )(0 (ti+1 ) i ) 1 1
1+
zf (ti )


zs 1+
zf (ti+1 )

(25)

The time interval to complete the internal drainage process is calculated from the internal drainage
rate, q(t), and the internal drainage amount (Wid ):

108

t =

Q. J. WANG et al.

Wid
q

(26)

Materials
To evaluate the redistribution model, the experimental data reported by Gardner et al. (1970) who
performed a series of inltration-redistribution trials on vertical cylindrical columns of Gilat loess, a ne
sandy loam, was used. The air-dried soil was passed through a-2 mm screen and packed mechanically (to
a bulk density of 1.47 g cm3 ) into lucite tubes with 5 cm inner diameter and 160 cm length. A depth
of 5 cm of water was applied to each soil column and water content proles were monitored repeatedly
by means of a gamma ray method during water redistribution. The detailed experimental description
can be found in Gardner et al. (1970).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The inltration model and the Green-Ampt model
The algebraic inltration model was converted into the Green-Ampt model with the parameters
and using Eqs. 12 and 13, which indicated that the Green-Ampt model could also be developed
based on the assumption and theory that the algebraic model was established and the parameters in
the inltration model could be estimated from each other. Thus, when the Green-Ampt model was
used to calculate the inltration rate or cumulative inltration, the soil water distribution could also be
calculated using Eq. 5. In this way, the shortage that the Green-Ampt model can not describe the soil
water content prole was overcome.
Evaluating the inltration and redistribution models
There were three parameters in the inltration and redistribution models. Whether the inltration
and redistribution models described the soil water movement well during inltration and post-inltration
depended on the parameters, , , and ks . Wang et al. (2003) analyzed the inuences of the three
parameters on the inltration properties. For a given soil, the constant, ks , reected the capacity of
the soil pores to transmit water. The comprehensive shape coecient of the soil water distribution, ,
which determined the amount of water in a soil prole for a xed wetting front distance, was a function
of N and M . Eq. 22 indicated that the amount of inltrated water in a soil prole (W ) decreased as
increased. Fig. 1 shows the inuences of on the amount of retained water in the soil prole when s
and i were assumed to be 0.45 and 0.04 cm3 cm3 , respectively. The results indicated that the amount

Fig. 1 Inuences of the comprehensive shape coecient of the soil water content distribution () on the amount of
retained water in the soil prole. zf is the wetting front distance.
Fig. 2

Soil water content distribution during inltration and redistribution. zf is the wetting front distance.

SOIL WATER INFILTRATION AND REDISTRIBUTION

109

of stored water decreased as increased. Also, as seen in Eq. 19, , a soil suction allocation coecient,
inuenced the internal drainage rate, q(t), which decreased as increased. Fig. 2 shows the moisture
redistribution with s , i , and assumed to be 0.45 cm3 cm3 , 0.04 cm3 cm3 , and 0.103, respectively.
The results indicated that the soil water content increased with the increase in the wetting front distance
and decreased in the upper part of the soil prole.
To further evaluate the redistribution model, the experimental data reported by Gardner et al.
(1970) was adopted. The tested soil water retention curve was:
h = 0.634.3

(27)

The unsaturated conductivity of the tested soil was:

k = 160 00010.6

(29)

where k is in cm d1 . Also, in order to obtain the related parameters in Eq. 2, Eq. 29 was converted
into Eq. 30:
 37 2.79
 0.04 9.3
= 9.68
(30)
k = 9.68
s 0.04
h
To analyze the moisture distribution, the wetting front distance at the beginning of the redistribution
was calculated based on the inltrated water amount (W ) from Eq. 22. Next, the soil water content at
the soil surface for a given wetting front distance, 0 (ti+1 ), was determined from Eq. 23. Subsequently,
Eq. 21 was used to calculate the soil water content distribution () corresponding to a given wetting front
distance zf (ti+1 ). After that, according to the calculated soil water content distribution, the intersect
depth (zs ) for the two soil water content proles was calculated using Eq. 24, and the internal drainage
(Wid ) corresponding to the two wetting front distances was calculated using Eq. 25. The calculated
internal drainage (Wid ) was divided by the internal drainage rate, q(t), to obtain the drainage time
(Eq. 26). According to the hydraulic parameters given by Eqs. 28 and 30, the soil water content proles
corresponding to drainage time were calculated (Fig. 3) with results indicating that the model can be
used to predict soil moisture redistribution.

Fig. 3

Soil moisture redistribution. The points represent the measured data and the lines are the calculated values.

CONCLUSIONS
It was important to predict eld unsaturated soil water ow precisely and quickly. When Richards
equation was used to describe soil water movement, numerical methods must be used, and the relevant parameters were dicult to estimate accurately. The algebraic model presented in this study was
convenient and simple to use for predicting soil water movement, and the model parameters were easily estimated. The model could reect the comprehensive features of unsaturated soil water movement
without evaporation.

110

Q. J. WANG et al.

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