Laboratory Exercise Number 1

Measurement of Soil Infiltration Rate

I. Introduction/Background

Infiltration is the term applied to the process of water entry into the soil, generally by
downward flow through all or part of the soil surface. The rate of this process, relative to the rate
of water supply, determines how much water will enter the root zone, and how much, if any, will
run off (Hillel, 1998).
o Brief description of Infiltration
o Importance of infiltration in agricultural production
o Studies on infiltration

II. Objectives
At the end of the exercise, the student should be able to:
1. determine the infiltration capacity of a particular soil; and
2. examine the effects of soil texture, structure and compaction on water infiltration.

III. Methodology/Materials/ Procedure

Performing the measurements for infiltration is a fairly simple method.

 First, use a 5-gallon bucket with the bottom cut out and a ruler drawn on the inside as
shown is Figure 1.
 Place the bucket on top of the soil and push it into the soil at least a couple centimeters so
water does not leak out around the edge of the bucket.
 Next fill the bucket to the top and start the timer as soon as the water is poured in.
 Observe the water level in the bucket and watch how it goes down, look on the outside
and see if you can see the soil getting wet.
 As the water level decreases by 1 cm record the time and do this until the water level has
completely gone or until 30 minutes has passed, whichever occurs first.
 Use Table 1 to record your data.
Figure 1: Pail used to measure infiltration rate.

 Notice the marking on the inside of the pail, the top of the pail is zero and is indexed
down to 35 cm.
 Once you have found the Height and time, calculate the rate of infiltration, in this case it
will be cm/min.
 Using Table 1 again, compute and fill in the table for rate of infiltration. This is done by
taking the height of water and dividing it by the time =>
 You might notice that over time, the rate is changing. This might be easier to see by
graphing it. Use Figure 2 to graph the rate of infiltration over time.
 Why is it that the rate is decreasing over time?
 Average all of the rates and this will be your infiltration rate for your soil.

Level of soil in bottom of pail ___2___cm

Height cm Time sec Time min Rate cm/min
27 5 0.08 324.00
26 10 0.17 156.00
25 12 0.20 125.00
24 13 0.22 110.77
23 13 0.22 106.15
22 14 0.23 94.29
21 16 0.27 78.75
20 19 0.32 63.16
19 18 0.30 63.33
18 18 0.30 60.00
17 19 0.32 53.68
16 20 0.33 48.00
15 21 0.35 42.86
14 22 0.37 38.18
13 23 0.38 33.91
12 25 0.42 28.80
11 25 0.42 26.40
10 26 0.43 23.08
9 30 0.50 18.00
8 33 0.55 14.55
7 37 0.62 11.35
6 37 0.62 9.73
5 44 0.73 6.82
4 46 0.77 5.22
3 80 1.33 2.25
2 126 2.10 0.95
1 163 2.72 0.37
Average = 57.24

FIGURE 1.
Now that you have your data, make a graph of the depth of water over time.

FIGURE 2. TIME VS RATE

IV. Results and Discussion

 As we can see on the table of data acquired through

observation when we poured the water to the soil, at
first the absorption of water by the soil is very fast, it
took only 5 seconds when the height of the water
changes in to 26 cm. After awhile its still very fast
but when it reaches the 21 cm mark the infiltration time
increases because the soil become saturated the pore
spaces is already filled with water so the time it took to
absorb the water increases.
 As we can in the graph, as time increases the infiltration
rate decreases also in vise versa as time decreases the
infiltration rate increases.
 Theres a lot of factors also affecting the infiltration
rate, the type of soil is the most common one. For us
the type of soil we used is sandy loam so it’s very fast
when the soil is absorbing the water at first but
when time to time the time increases because the soil
become saturated and its hard for the water to be
absorb anymore.
FIGURE 3.
FIGURE 4.
 FIGURE 5.
V. Summary and Conclusions

 With this given laboratory we can determine the soil infiltration rate using the improvised infiltrometer.
 Different factors affect the soil infiltration rate, such as the type of soil, the structure, and compaction of soil.
 As for the soil we used its sandy loam soil, its used for gardening its normally made up of sand along with varying amounts of silt
and clay. This soil is usually good in drainage because it has a lot of pore spaces this characteristic makes up for a good drainage in
soil.
 Soil structure and texture also affects infiltration rate, as stated above the composition of the soil we used is normally made up of
sand along with varying amount of silt and clay this makes it porous.
 Soil compaction also affects infiltration rate, soil compaction occurs when soil particles are pressed together, reducing the pores of
the soil. This reduces rate of water infiltration and drainage because it contains few large pores, less total pore volume and greater
density so water is hard to pass through.