Quantification of film flow infiltration velocity in a crushed Yucca Mountain Tuff

Current understanding of interfacial areas and flow in unsaturated soil does generally not account for liquid water films that form on porous media at low saturations. Because the behavior of these films is complex and difficult to measure, they are often ignored. Experiments conducted in two capillary barrier systems with two different underlying coarse materials illustrated the potential impact of surface roughness and grain morphology on the film infiltration velocity and suggest that understanding their behavior is vital for addressing flow and transport problems that take place in the low saturation range. Using the equation for film infiltration velocity derived by Hay et al. (2008) and surface analysis of the crushed Yucca Mountain Tuff, theoretical infiltration velocities were derived. We observed high agreement between the infiltration velocity based on the theory, and measurements in the experimental capillary barrier systems. The experimental systems were modeled using HYDRUS 2D and a pseudo diffusion coefficient across the fine/course sediment interface. Using this approach we have successfully mimicked film flow based solely on physical measurements of the sediment surface.