Vadose Zone Permeability Tests: Summary

Solutions to determine saturated hydraulic above a water table by means of constant head borehole infiltration tests are summarized and critiqued. Analytical solutions are available for open and partly cased boreholes and deep and shallow water table conditions. The formulas are based on various simplifying assumptions pertaining to soil properties and boundary conditions. None of the solutions account for capillary effects. For identical test conditions values of hydraulic conductivity calculated from these formulas may differ by as much as a few hundred percent.