Kostiakov Equation 📐💧:
The Kostiakov equation is an empirical formula used to model the rate of water infiltration into soil over time. The formula is:
where:
- is the infiltration rate at time 🕒,
- and are empirical constants 📊,
- is the time since infiltration began ⏰.
This equation assumes the intake rate declines over time according to a power function. To address its limitation of assuming a zero final intake rate, a variant known as the Kostiakov-Lewis equation is used:
where is the steady-state infiltration rate 🔄.
Green-Ampt Equation 🌿💦: The Green-Ampt equation is a method for estimating infiltration into soils during rainfall events 🌧️, given by the formula:
where:
- is cumulative infiltration at time 🕒,
- is hydraulic conductivity of the soil 🌱,
- is time since infiltration began ⏰,
- is the wetting front soil suction head 🌀,
- is the change in volumetric water content 🌊.
The assumptions of this equation include homogeneous soil, constant hydraulic conductivity, and ponding conditions on the soil surface 💧. By rearranging and integrating, one can solve for either cumulative infiltration or the infiltration rate :