Introduction
Initial rainfall on land will wet the surface and subsequent precipitation must
either infiltrate the soil if the surface is permeable or runoff into a stream channel. In
the latter case the surface will be impermeable.
Objective
To identify the characteristics of the infiltration rate water into the sand bed
Procedure
i Fully opened the by-pass control valve at the bottom left of the panel
ii Set the well drain no. 1 and no. 2 directly to the tank.
iii Both tank supply valve is closed.
iv Both spray valves is fully opened.
v The hydraulics apparatus is switch on.
vi Take the flow rate reading and start a stopwatch. The water flow rate is
adjusted as to maintain less than a mm of water above the sand bed without
any surface.
vii The flow rate is recorded every 2 minutes until reach 30 minutes.
Apparatus
i Basic hydrological instrument
ii Rain gauge
iii Stopwatch
Page | 1
Results
Flow Rate (L/min) Time (min) Flow rate/Area of bed (mm/min)
4 0 54
4 2 53
4 4 53
4 6 53
4 8 53
4 10 53
2 12 53
2 14 52
2 16 52
2 18 52
2 20 52
0 22 51
0 24 36
0 26 28
0 28 17
0 30 12
Discussion
Time X Infiltration Rate Graph
Infiltration Rate versus Time graph
60
50
40
30
Infiltration Rate(mm/min)
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Page | 2
Relationship between flow rate (L/min) and time (min) is the flow rate
decreases as the time increases. A constant value of flow rate was obtained at the end
of the experiment because the catchments became saturated.
Three Different characteristic of soil
(a) Dry soil
For the dry soil, we can see that the infiltration occurred faster than another soil. This
is because, water easier to absorb to the dry soil because inside the soil, they have a
lot of void.
(b) Wet soil
For the wet soil, infiltration not too fast. It is slow than saturated soil. This is because
they already have water inside the soil. So, the water was slowly absorbed inside the
soil.
Page | 5
(c) Saturated soil
For the saturated soil, infiltration occurred very slow because they have a lot of
water inside the saturated soil that wet soil
Conclusion
From this experiment, our objective which is to identify the characteristics of
the infiltration rate water into the sand bed is achieved. We know when the sands are
fully dry, the infiltration rate is very high. And as time goes by, the infiltration rate
will keep decreases. The flow meter value will decrease until at a certain point where
it becomes constant. At this point, we consider the sands are fully saturated where no
more water can go through the sands.
Page | 6
Appendices
4l/min flow rate 2l/min flow rate
Water Spray Sand bed
Flow rate/area of bed
Page | 7
References
i Bernoullis Theorem Demonstration, 27 August 2010,
http://www.solution.com.my/pdf/FM24(A4).pdf
ii Open Ended Lab Manual For Hydrology And Hydraulic Engineering,
Universiti Tenaga Nasional.
Page | 8
