Error correction of water evaporation loss on the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity

Abstract

Water evaporation loss occurs during multistep outflow experiments from the soil surface and the outflow vessel. The main focus of this paper is to introduce an improved pressure plate instrument that can correct for the error of water evaporation loss on the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. Experiments using silicon micropowder (SMP) and Guangxi Guiping clay (GGC) were conducted with an improved instrument. The results showed that the measured value of the water content will be overestimated and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity will be underestimated without considering the water evaporation loss.