Soil-Water Characteristic Curve Modeling at Low Water Content: Empirical and Semi-Empirical Approaches

Marcel Bawindsom Kébré (1, 2) , Francois Ouedraogo (1) , Naon Betaboalé (1) , François Zougmoré (1) , Fabien Cherblanc (3)

1 LAME
2 LMGC - Laboratoire de Mécanique et Génie Civil
3 CGB - Couplages en Géomécanique et Biomécanique

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the most widely used semi-empirical models (van Genuchten (1980), Fayer and Simmons (1995) and Fredlund and Xing (1994)) and, an empirical model, the Modified Kovacs (MK) model for the determination of soil-water characteristic curve at the low water contents of two horizons of a soil from Burkina Faso. Combining terms from capillary state and adsorbed state of soil water gives a physical basis for the Modified Kovacs model. Our study confirms that the use of semi-empirical models requires somewhat large dataset covering the entire range of water content while the empirical model MK requires only basic geotechnical properties of soil and a few experimental points to adjust the parameters m and ac of the model. It appears that the MK model, by its simplicity and lower cost for the acquisition of experimental data, is the most appropriate.

Mots clés: soil; water; arid; modelling; empirical; semi-empirical

Domaines: Génie civil

Marcel Bawindsom Kébré, Francois Ouedraogo, Naon Betaboalé, François Zougmoré, Fabien Cherblanc. Soil-Water Characteristic Curve Modeling at Low Water Content: Empirical and Semi-Empirical Approaches. International Journal of Engineering Research, 2013, 2 (7), pp.432-437. ⟨hal-00948643⟩