Measuring principle:
The infiltration is done by placing a circular shaped hood filled with water directly on the soil surface. Thus, no contact layer on the soil surface is necessary . The pressure head in the water filled hood is regulated by a “Mariotte“ -water supply. The effective pressure head at the soil surface can be adjusted between zero and any negative pressure up to the bubble point of the soil. The pressure head and the bubble point can be measured directly via an U-pipe manometer and the stand pipe of the hood. For calculation of the hydraulic conductivity after WOODING’s equation (steady state infiltration) two hoods are used with a ratio of 2 : 1 in terms of the covered infiltration area at the soil surface.