TITLE: INFILTRATION RATE TEST

1.0 OBJECTIVE
To identify the characteristics of the infiltration rate of water into soils in the field.

2.0 LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to apply the knowledge and skills they
have learned to:
a. Understand the concept of infiltration of water into soils.
b. Understand the factors which influence the infiltration rates.

3.0 INTRODUCTION
Some of the precipitation that falls on land seeps into the ground where it is stored in
aquifers and is transported to streams and lakes by subsurface flow. The amount of
infiltration is influenced by the permeability and moisture content of the soil, the presence
of vegetation and the volume and intensity of precipitation. The amount of water in an
aquifer is indicated by the height of the water table (the upper boundary of aquifer).
This animation illustrates the effect of soil permeability (large particles have large
spaces between them and let more water in) and precipitation volume (large rain events can
lead to more infiltration) on the amount of water stored in the aquifer.

4.0 THEORY
The volume of water used during each measured time interval is converted into an
incremental infiltration velocity for both the inner ring and annular space using the
following equations; VIR VIR /( AIR .t ) where, VIR is the inner ring incremental

infiltration velocity(cm/hr), VIR is the volume of water used during time interval to

maintain constant head in the inner ring (mL), AIR is the internal area of inner ring (cm2)
and t is the time interval (hour).
 For the annular space between rings, calculate as follows; VA VA /( AA .t ) where

V A is the annular space incremental infiltration velocity (cm/hr), V A is the volume of

water used during time interval to maintain constant head in the annular space between the
rings (mL), AA is the area of annular space (cm2) and t is the time interval (hour). The
infiltration rate calculated with the inner ring should be the value used for results if the
rates for the inner ring and annular space differ. The difference in rates is due to divergent
flow.

5.0 EQUIPMENTS
1. Two stainless steels rings measure 12 and 24 diameter x 20 high.

2. Marriotte tube.

3. Hammer
6.0 PROCEDURES
1. Find the suitable place and the surface to be cleaned.
2. Both large and small ring ring planted the small part of the original height, while the
small ring should be at the center of the middle of the ring.

3. Tower at small ring namely large ring 5cm and 10cm marked and small ring on the
other hand 10cm from ground level.
4. Deep water ring out poured until 10cm and water infiltration seen and marked until
decrease until 5cm.

5. Next move is water is poured in ring in until 10cm.

6. Stopwatch pressed to start time in time interval that had set namely time interval for 1
minutes and water decline reading in ring in recorded.
7. Water enhanced at ring out because happen water infiltration but ring inside water in
only filled once only.

8. Infiltration test discontinued after reading taken still same after 3 reading time done in
time interval that had set.
7.0 RESULT AND CALCULATIONS

TABLE 7.1: Infiltration rate experiment results

Time, Inner Infiltration Infiltration 1200 77 1 0.0008

t (s) (mm) capacity Rate 1260 76 1 0.0008
(mm) (mm/s) 1320 75 1 0.0008
60 100 1 0.0167 1380 74 1 0.0007
120 99 2 0.0167 1440 73 1 0.0007
180 97 2 0.0111 1500 72 1 0.0007
240 95 1 0.0042 1560 71 1 0.0006
300 94 1 0.0033 1620 70 1 0.0006
360 93 2 0.0056 1680 69 1 0.0006
420 91 1 0.0024 1740 68 1 0.0006
480 90 1 0.0021 1800 67 1 0.0006
540 89 1 0.0019 1860 66 1 0.0005
600 88 1 0.0017 1920 65 1 0.0005
660 87 2 0.0030 1980 64 1 0.0005
720 85 1 0.0014 2040 63 1 0.0005
780 84 1 0.0013 2100 62 1 0.0005
840 83 1 0.0012 2160 61 0 0.0000
900 82 1 0.0011 2220 61 0 0.0000
960 81 1 0.0010 2280 61 0 0.0000
1020 80 1 0.0010
1080 79 1 0.0009
1140 78 1 0.0009
8.0 QUESTIONS
1. Plot a graphs of:
a. Infiltration capacity versus time

INFILTRATION CAPACITY VERSUS TIME

2.5
INFILTRATION CAPACITY (mm)

1.5

0.5

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
TIME, t (s)

b. Infiltration rate versus time

INFILTRATION RATE VERSUS TIME

0.0180
0.0160
INFILTRATION RATE (mm/s)

0.0140
0.0120
0.0100
0.0080
0.0060
0.0040
0.0020
0.0000
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
TIME , t (s)
 2. From the graph in 1(b), please identify the basic of infiltration rate?
From the graph 1 (b), we can conclude that the infiltration rate of the soil that has been
tested is decreased when the time is increase. The infiltration rate is become slower until
it become 0 infiltrate.

9.0 DISCUSSION
From the experiment, we can see that the conditions of soils influence the infiltration
rates. For dry soils, infiltration occurred faster, water can absorb faster than wet soil and
saturated soil because inside the soil, they have a lot of void. For wet soil, infiltration
occurred in modest time between dry soil and saturated soil because they already contain
water inside the soil. So, water slowly absorb into the soil.
From the data, the absorption of water only from 0 to 2 mm per minutes. From the
experiment, we consider that the soils are wet, after plot a graph of infiltration rate versus
time. The process of infiltration is not too fast because they already have water inside the
soil. So, the water was slowly to absorb inside the soil during the experiment was carried
out.

10.0 CONCLUSION
As conclusion of this experiment we found that the infiltration rate is affected by the
conditions of soil that we tested. The infiltration rate is faster in a dry soil, and become
slowly in a wet soil and very slowly in a saturated soil. Therefore, the infiltration capacity
was affected by the porosity of the soil and moisture content of the soil.