Hydrology III: Supplementary notes to Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Infiltration and Percolation

Textbook: Study p66-p80
Concise: Study p51-p61

Infiltration
Some Definitions
• Infiltration
The process whereby water
penetrates the surface of the
soil. The water then
percolates through the soil to
the underlying layers
• Infiltration rate
Volume per time unit (often
mm/hour)
surface runoff
• Infiltration capacity
maximum rate soil can
absorb (NB – varies with soil
wetness)
• Surface runoff
water that does not infiltrate

4.1. General

 Infiltration is the movement of water from the soil surface into the soil.
 A fraction of precipitation that infiltrates on a global scale is about 76%
 On a regional or local scale, it has large variations
 Water beneath the ground surface is called sub-surface water, which can further be classified into soil moisture
(soil water) and groundwater-GW)
 Basic distinction is that soil moisture refers to water in unsaturated zone of the ground (zone of aeration)
whilst GW refers to water in the saturated ground.
 In this section, emphasis will be on soil moisture and the its movement within the ground.

 Water reaching the ground surface during precipitation may also enter the ground as follows:
 may remain temporarily as depression storage on soil/ground surface to be used by plants or evaporate
directly.
 may flow laterally above the GW table until it reaches a low-lying body of water (interflow)
 it may continue to move downwards until it reaches the GW table
 Further vertical movement of water from the aerated soil zone to the saturated zone is called percolation.

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 The movement of water into soil and the soil moisture zone is illustrated in the figure below:

4.2. Measurement of Infiltration

 Infiltration, defined as the vertical movement of water from the ground surface into the soil zone, can be measured
in terms of the infiltration rate (f).

 The practical importance of infiltration is two-fold:

- it influences the rainfall-runoff process, and
- it replenishes soil moisture, and (in combination with percolation) recharges aquifers and ultimately supports
streamflows during dry periods.
-
 The infiltration rate (f) is the depth of water entering the soil zone in a given time.
 For any soil the infiltration rate varies with time according to the current moisture level within the soil zone and the
current rainfall intensity.
 As the moisture level increases the infiltration rate will decrease. However, at a certain moisture level, the rate
will reach a minimum value, known as the infiltration capacity (fc).
- Therefore in measuring infiltration, the focus is normally on measuring either the maximum rate (the initial
infiltration rate (f0)) or the minimum rate (fc).
 At start of a rainfall event falling on dry ground surface (with a rainfall intensity greater than the infiltration
capacity of the dry soil), water will infiltrate into the soil at the rate equal to the rainfall intensity.
 Infiltration rate will remain equal to the rainfall intensity until the soil zone becomes saturated.
 Now the actual infiltration(f) rate becomes equal to the infiltration capacity rate (fp) [ excess is runoff]
 Shape of infiltration vs time curve after this point will be influenced by the initial soil moisture content and the
rainfall intensity:
 Commonly used methods of determining infiltration capacity are hydrograph analysis and infiltrometer studies.
 Infiltrometers are usually classified as rainfall simulators or flooding devices
 Estimates of infiltration based on hydrograph analysis have the advantage because of relating more directly to
prevailing conditions of precipitation and field .

1. The flooding device (infiltrometer)

An infiltrometer (see Figure below) is a device that is commonly used for measuring infiltration rates.

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 - Consists of 2 metal cylinders placed concentrically in the soil (both are filled with water to a depth of 5
mm).
- As the water infiltrates, more water is added to both the inner and the outer ring to maintain a constant depth.
- The amount of water added to the inner cylinder is recorded and the time at which it is added.
- In this way the rate of change of depth of water can be calculated.
- The purpose of the outer cylinder is to ensure that vertical movement occurs below the inner cylinder.

- Results from the infiltrometer test are valuable in determining values of f at individual locations but have
limited value in terms of knowing the value over a whole catchment.
- e.g. vegetation and slope greatly influence the filtration rate, yet these would normally vary throughout a
catchment.

2.Rainfall-runoff simulators

 Rainfall-runoff simulators can be used to consider effects of soil type, slopes and vegetation on filtration rates
- Such simulators consists of overhead pipes which are used to spray water onto a bed of soil
- Runoff from the bed surface and water that seeps through can be collected at various times intervals
- Such equipment is useful for comparing infiltration rates for different catchment conditions, but it cannot
be used to accurately measure actual infiltration rates because of the effects of the atmospheric pressure
and also the limited size of the soil layer.

3. Infiltration Models
 Two categories: those that provide a continuous measurement of infiltration rate with time and those
that provide some indication of % of water that infiltrates during each storm event.
 Either can be used depending on how extensive the data required is and the instrumentation available.

Horton’s Model
 Used for continuous measurement and modelling of f with time
 Assumed that provided the rainfall intensity (I) is greater than the infiltration rate (f), f would decrease
exponentially with time. Eventually the rate would reach a minimum as time tends to infinity:

ft  f c  ( f o  f c )e kt
where: ft = the infiltration rate (depth/time) at some time t (mm/hr);
k = a constant dependent on soil type and representing the rate of decrease in f capacity (1/hr);
fc = the final (minimum or equilibrium) infiltration capacity (mm/hr);
f0 = the initial infiltration capacity (mm/hr).

4. The -index method

 It is a widely used method to quickly check and assess the probable runoff from large catchments for a particular
storm
 The method assumes that the infiltration rate is constant.
 The  index is defined as the value of average rainfall such that any exceedence of the value will result in surface
runoff. This means that if the value of rainfall is known for a particular storm and also the total depth of surface
runoff is known, the index can be determined graphically and also through iteration.
 The index combines interception, depression storage and infiltration characteristics.
 In the fig. below the variation of rainfall has been drawn (hyetograph)
 If the measured depth of surface runoff was 20 mm, the -index can be drawn by lowering a horizontal line
parallel to the x-axis until the area above the line is 20 mm.
 In the fig below it was found that the index was 8 mm/hr

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 Hence the average index can be obtained by repeating the procedure for each storm event recorded within the
catchment and taking the average.

The iteration method procedure is as follows:

(a) Assume all the rainfall values recorded for the given time interval contribute to surface runoff
 The index is the average of the total rainfall less the known surface runoff.
(b) If the some rainfall values are less than the index, then the first assumption is wrong. From the definition of the
index, it means these rainfall values did not contribute to the surface runoff.
(c) You repeat the iteration, this time subtract the runoff and the rainfall values which did not contribute to run-off as
detailed in (b).
Example 1
 Given rainfall intensity (mm/h) values at I hour intervals: 10, 15, 15, 10, 2.5, 10
 Runoff (mm) = 20 mm
st
1 iteration
Total rainfall = 10 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 2. 5 + 10 = 62.5 mm and
Assuming that all the rainfall values contributed to surface runoff, then
-Index = (62.5 – 20)/6 = 7.1 mm/h
Since the index is greater than the 2.5mm/h rainfall event, this rainfall did not contribute to surface runoff.
2nd iteration
Assuming that all the rainfall values contributed to surface runoff except the 2.5mm/h, then
Total rainfall contributing = 10 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 10 = 60 mm and
-Index = (60 – 20)/5 = 8 mm/h
Since the index is less than these five rainfall events, they all contributed to surface runoff.
Therefore -Index = 8 mm/h
Tutorial question
The initial infiltration capacity f0 of a watershed is estimated as 25 mm/hr and the time constant is taken to be 0.3 hr-1.
The equilibrium capacity fc is 6 mm/hr. Use the Horton’s equation to compute the total infiltration and runoff over the 5
hours if the following rainfall occurred. Ans: 65.0 mm; 26.0 mm

Time (hour) 1 2 3 4 5
Rainfall (mm) 12 25 11 28 15

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