Automated hanging water column for characterizing water retention and hysteresis of coarse‐textured porous media

Abstract

Modeling and characterizing hysteretic water retention is critical for predicting hydrodynamic behavior in porous media. This is especially true in coarse‐textured media used in geotechnical engineering, greenhouse, and landscape industries, where subtle changes in water status may lead to plant stress. However, based on the traditional hanging water column method, water retention measurements are laborious and time‐consuming because of the stepwise manual water potential adjustments and wait‐time requirements for equilibrium conditions to develop. Therefore, we designed and fabricated an automated system to collect wetting‐ and drying‐water retention data from coarse porous media. The basic system consistedThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved