Saturated Flow and Soil Structure

1 Introduction.- 2 Survey of the Subject.- 2.1 The Setting of This Subject.- 2.2 Morphology of Soil Structure with Regards to Water Movement.- 2.2.1 Concepts and Aspects.- 2.2.2 The Three-Dimensional Reality of Soil Structure and Its Image.- 2.2.3 A Related Topic: the Morphometry of the Microrelief of the Soil Surface.- 2.3 Flow of Water Through the Larger Voids in the Soil.- 2.3.1 Concepts for the Flow of Water Through Larger Voids in the Soil.- 2.3.2 Related Topics: Overland Flow, Interflow, Preferential Flow, Pipe Flow.- 2.4 The Approach Followed in This Study to Contribute to Problem Solutions.- 3 Basic Considerations.- 3.1 The Characterization of the Geometry of Inter-Aggregate Voids.- 3.1.1 The length of the Inter-Aggregate Voids Ler.- 3.1.2 The Volume of the Inter-Aggregate Voids PVer.- 3.1.3 The Volume of the Intra-Aggregate Voids PVra.- 3.1.4 The Total Pore Volume TPV.- 3.1.5 The Continuity of the Inter-Aggregate Voids NC.- 3.1.6 The Median of the Void Width Distribution Md.- 3.1.7 The Most Frequent Void Width (modal value).- 3.1.8 The Surface of the Aggregates Fa.- 3.1.9 The Hydraulic Radius of the Inter-Aggregate Voids Rh (cm).- 3.1.10 The Geometric Quartile Deviation of the Inter-Aggregate Void Widths Devq.- 3.1.11 The Skewness Coefficient of the SCVW Sk.- 3.1.12 The Variation Coefficient of the Void Widths Diff.- 3.1.13 The Filter Surface FF.- 3.1.14 The Inter-Aggregate Void Surface Fer.- 3.2 The Characterization of the Flow of Water Through Inter-Aggregate Voids and Around Impermeable Inclusions.- 3.2.1 Fluid Mechanics.- 3.2.2 Solute Transport Processes, Mixing and Flow Components.- 3.2.2.1 Breakthrough Curves, Mixing and Leaching Efficiencies.- 3.2.2.2 Degrees of Mixing.- 3.2.2.3 Inter-Aggregate Rates of Flow.- 3.3 Remarks on this Effort to Quantitatively Record the Shape and Hydromechanical Function of the Soil Structure.- 3.3.1 The Morphometry of Soil Structure.- 3.3.2 The Selection of Morphometric Parameters.- 3.3.3 The Chosen Column Dimensions.- 3.3.4 Spacing and Orientation of the Image Planes.- 3.3.5 The Scale of the Evaluated Images.- 3.3.6 The Procedure for the Evaluation of the Images.- 4 Experimental Studies.- 4.1 Experiments on the Movement of Water in Inter-Aggregate Voids.- 4.1.1 Construction of Soil Columns with an Artificial Structure.- 4.1.2 Execution of Experiments.- 4.1.3 Evaluation of the Experiments.- 4.1.4 Results.- 4.2 Experiments on the Flow Around Impermeable Inclusions.- 4.2.1 Preliminary Remarks.- 4.2.2 Description of the Experimental Procedure.- 4.2.3 Evaluation of the Experiments.- 4.2.3.1 Flow Data.- 4.2.3.2 Mixing Data.- 4.2.4 Results.- 4.3 Experiments on the Influence of Air Inclusions on Water Movement.- 4.3.1 Preliminary Remark.- 4.3.2 Set Up and Execution of the Experiments.- 4.3.3 Evaluation of the Experiments.- 4.3.4 Results of the Experiments.- 4.4 Void Morphometry and Infiltration Rates.- 4.4.1 Preliminary Remarks.- 4.4.2 Description of the Experiments.- 4.4.3 Evaluation of the Experiments.- 4.4.4 Results of the Experiments.- 5 Discussion of the Results and Concluding Analysis.- 5.1 Interpretation of the Experimental Results.- 5.1.1 Experiments on the Movement of Water in Inter-Aggregate Voids.- 5.1.1.1 The Morphometry of Inter-Aggregate Voids.- 5.1.1.2 The Relationship Between Flow Processes and Void Morphometry.- 5.1.2 Experiments on the Flow Around Inclusions.- 5.1.3 Experiments on the Influence of Air Inclusions on Water Movement.- 5.1.4 Void Morphometry and Infiltration Rate.- 5.1.5 The Applicability of the Modified Ergun Equation According to MacDonald et al. (1979) to Soil Hydrologie Studies.- 5.2 Some Possibilities and Restrictions of Application.- 6 Summary.- References.- List of Symbols, Abbreviations and Constants.- Author Index.