Testing Simplified Beerkan Infiltration (SBI) Methods on Technosol to Estimate the Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity

The development of infiltration techniques has facilitated the estimation of soils hydraulic properties. Among these, the simplified Beerkan infiltration methods are the most attractive because of their ease of use and low cost. However, they have not been tested on a wide range of soils, more particularly on technosols which are more and more present in urban areas. The transient method using the preliminary part of the infiltration curve and the long-time method using the part of the curve where the infiltration flow becomes permanent were tested on 32 infiltrations collected on 5 experimental technosols to estimate the saturated hydraulic conductivity K_s. The results show that the estimated K_s for both methods are in the same order of magnitude when compared to the reference value. The steady state approach has led to better results of K_s estimates related with R² factor of 0.902 versus 0.798 for transient one. However, in the case of Basic Oxygen Furnace slag technosol the differences in K_s estimates are more pronounced and additional investigations are necessary. If no complex reaction inside the microstructure occurs, then the simplified method may be used for a rough estimate of K_s on technosols.