UC Riverside

In the vadose zone, preferential flow and transport are much more common than uniform water flow and solute transport. In recent decades, several models have been developed for preferential water flow and physical nonequilibrium solute transport. Among these models, the dual-permeability approach is an interesting tool for the conceptualization and modeling of preferential flow. However, this approach has been mainly studied from a numerical point of view. In this study, we developed a new analytical model for water infiltration into dual-permeability soils. The model is based on the analytical model originally proposed for single-permeability soils. The proposed model relies on the assumption that the water exchange rate at the interface between the matrix and fast-flow regions does not change cumulative infiltration at the soil surface, so that the total cumulative infiltration can be set equal to the sum of independent cumulative infiltrations into each region. This assumption was investigated using numerically generated data. The proposed analytical model was then used to evaluate the effects of fast-flow region hydraulic properties and hydraulic conditions on total cumulative infiltration for the case of single- and multi-tension water infiltration experiments. Finally, both single- and dual-permeability models were evaluated with respect to their ability to fit experimental data and associated problems of non-uniqueness in optimized parameters. The proposed model could serve as a new tool for modeling and characterizing preferential flow in the vadose zone.