Effect of Soil Sample Size on Saturated Soil Hydraulic Conductivity

Saturated hydraulic conductivity (K-sat) is regarded as a key soil physical variable to determine soil infiltration rate, percolation depth and other hydrological processes. The purpose of this study was to determine the best soil sampling's ring size for measuring K-sat. For this purpose, 25 rings with five different diameters (2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 inch) and with the same depth of 20 cm (five replicates) were hammered in close vicinity to each other into the ground of undisturbed loess deposits of a small farm to measure K-sat and bulk density. Hydraulic conductivity was measured at three constant loads of 22, 27 and 32 cm. The results showed that the ring with the internal diameter of 6 inches had the minimum variation coefficient and maximum K-sat for all the three hydraulic heads. In addition, the bulk density of this ring size was less than the other rings.