FRONTAL MOVEMENT OF AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS DURING REDISTRIBUTION THROUGH AIR-DRY SAND COLUMNS AS A FUNCTION OF COLUMN LENGTH AND TIME

Abstract

The frontal movement during redistribution of unsorbed waste fronts through an air-dried sand was measured as a function of time and column length for columns from 25-200 cm long. All column data fit an equation of the form S = ETF. S [distance of the wetting front from the soil surface at time T] was found to be significantly correlated with T (at the 1% level). The equation was normalized by dividing S and E [along with F, it is an empirical parameter that must be calculated for each soil] by the column length. When this was done, data for all columns fit a single normalized equation. Use of this equation allows estimation of the shortest possible time necessary for the front of a pulse of waste solution to reach a given depth in a homogeneous soil system.