Dr.

Shibani Khanra Jha

BITS, Pilani
 INFILTRATION
 Defined as the process by which water
enters the strata of the earth.

 The infiltrated water first meets the soil

moisture deficiency , if any and therefore
the excess water moves vertically
downwards to reach the groundwater table.
This vertical movement is called
percolation.
 INFILTRATION
 The infiltration capacity, f of a soil under a
given conditions is defined as the maximum
rate at which it is capable of absorbing water
and is denoted by f.
 The actual infiltration be fa and if i denotes the
rate of rainfall then
1. fa= f , if i > or equal to f and
2. fa = i if i< f
FACTORS AFFECTING INFILTRATION
CAPACITY, f
 Depth of surface detention and thickness
of saturated layer: Infiltration takes place due
to combined influence of gravity and capillary
forces.

 When the thickness of saturated layer (L)

becomes large and depth of detention becomes
negligible compared to L, any increase in L
produces same effect both on resistance and
driving head and so f remains constant.
FACTORS AFFECTING INFILTRATION
CAPACITY, f
 Soil moisture- If a soil is completely dry at the
beginning of rain there is a strong capillary
attraction for moisture in the substance layers
that acts in the same direction as gravity and
gives high initial value of infiltration.

 If the soil is moist to begin with , the

infiltration starts with lesser capacity
compared to that of a dry soil.
 FACTORS AFFECTING INFILTRATION
CAPACITY, f
 Compaction- The clay surfaced soils are compacted
even by the impact of rain drops which reduce f .
 When the compaction is artificial due to man-made
effects the initial infiltration capacity is very low and it
is further reduced during the storm.
 High infiltration capacities produced by ploughing
and cultivation, burrowing animals and insects, f is
often reduced very rapidly by compaction due to rain.
FACTORS AFFECTING INFILTRATION
CAPACITY, f
 Surface cover conditions-The nature of
surface cover has also an important influence
on the infiltration. The presence of a dense
cover of vegetation on the surface increases f.
 Surfaces covered with snow, and paved urban
areas will obviously have very low or zero
infiltration capacity.
FACTORS AFFECTING INFILTRATION
CAPACITY, f
 Temperature - The effect of temperature on infiltration
is explained through viscosity. At high temperatures since
viscosity of water is low, high infiltration capacities are
expected.
 In winter months when low temperatures prevail the
infiltration capacity is also low
 Others -The other factors which may marginally affect
the infiltration capacity include the entrapped air in the
pores, the quality of water, freezing, etc.
 MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
 Infiltrometers- These are of two types.
1) flooding type infiltrometers and
2) rainfall simulators.
 Flooding type infiltrometers cause single ring or two
ring to delineate the sample area.
 In former case it is known as simple infiltrometers or tube
infiltrometers.
 In the later case it is called a double ring infiltrometers.
 MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
Tube infiltrometers
 This consists of a metal cylinder of diameter 25
to 30 cm and length 50 to 60 cm, with both
ends open. It is driven into a level ground such
that about 10 cm of the cylinder is above the
ground.
 The water is poured into the ring till the water
level touches the tip of the pointer and
infiltration is proceeded, as water level goes
down it is brought to the original level by
adding required amount of water .
MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
 The major drawback of the tube infiltrometer
is that the infiltrated water percolates laterally
at the bottom of the ring.
 MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
Double ring infiltrometer
 This is the most commonly used flooding type
infiltrometer. It consists of two concentric rings
driven into soil to a depth of about 15 cm
uniformly without tilt and disturbing the soil to
the least.
 Water is then applied in both inner and outer
rings to maintain a constant depth of about 5
cm. Water is replenished after the level falls by
about 1 cm.
MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION

 Water depth in the inner and outer rings

should be kept same during the
observation period.
 The surface of the soil may be protected
by a perforated disk of sheet so that the
surface water is kept at minimum.
MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
 Double Ring Infiltrometer
EXAMPLE 1

a) Determine the infiltration capacity rates, f, for the

time interval in the experiment.
b)What is the ultimate infiltration capacity rate fc?
c) What is the average infiltration capacity for the first
10 minutes and 30 minutes of the experiment?
EXAMPLE 1 - Solution
EXAMPLE 1-Solution
MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
Infiltrometer with adjustable depth of
flooding
 The depth of flooding in the infiltrometer can
be maintained at any level and also the
constant depth of flooding can be maintained
automatically by having two feeder tanks.
MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
EXAMPLE 2
 MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
Rainfall simulators
 In this type water is applied on to a plot of
about 2 m* 4 m in the form of drops resembling
rainfall through series of nozzles and the
resulting runoff is continuously measured.
 The experiment consists of calibration run,
test run, and analytical run.
 The water balance equation at any time during
the test run can be written as
 P= Q+ F+ Vd +Da
 MEASUREMENT OF INFILTRATION
 Where P is the cumulative rainfall ,Q is the
cumulative runoff, Vd is the depression storage
and Da is the water stored in detention, all
expressed in terms of depth over the plot.
 INFILTRATION EQUATIONS
Horton equation
 Horton developed a mathematical equation for
defining the rate curve of infiltration capacity
given by
f = fc + (f0 – fc ) e-kt
Where f0 is the initial infiltration, t is the time
since the start of rainfall and k is a constant
depending on type of soil and condition of
vegetable cover .
INFILTRATION EQUATIONS
 INFILRATION EQUATIONS
Philips equation
f= A + S/2 t-1/2
S and A are parameters to be evaluated which are
similar to f0 and fc of Horton’s equation
Kostiakov equation
F = a tn
F is cumulative infiltration depth from the start
of rainfall up to time t and a and n are the two
parameters to be evaluated.
INFILTRATION EQUATIONS

Holtan equation
f – fc = a FPn
Where a= 0.62 and n=1.387
INFILTRATION INDICES
 They represents average rate of infiltration
 Types of indices
1) Ø-index
2) W- indices
INFILTRATION INDICES
Ø-index
 It is the average rainfall intensity above which the rainfall is
equal to the runoff
 The Ø-index value is found by treating it as a constant
infiltration capacity
 The initial loss is also considered as infiltration.
INFILTRATION INDICES
 Derived from rainfall hyetograph and by
knowing the runoff volume
 The amount of rainfall in excess of Ø- index is
called rainfall excess.
Ø-index = Pe –R/te
Where
Pe is rainfall which produce runoff
R is total run off depth
te is duration of effective rainfall
INFILTRATION INDICES
W- index
 It is a refined version of Ø-index
 Here initial losses are separated from the total
losses
 It is the average infiltration rate during the
time in which rainfall intensity exceeds the
capacity rate.
W-index= P – R/t
Where P is total rainfall , R is runoff, t is
duration of storm
INFILTRATION INDICES
 For uniform intensity rain

Ø-index = W-index

 For non – uniform intensity rain

Ø-index is slightly greater than

W-index