A good knowledge of hydraulic characteristics, particularly the retention curves, of the applied materials is necessary when studying the efficiency of a capillary barrier or numerically simulating flow of water in its layers. The main difficulties of their measurements originate in the fact that the coarse-grained soils of capillary barriers come from the state of residual moisture to the state of saturation within relatively small interval of pressure head. Hence, it is necessary to carry out the measurements in very fine steps of pressure head. Four materials of two capillary barriers are investigated in this paper. The tension apparatus according to Havlíček and Myslivec was used to measure their retention curves. Both branches of retention curves were measured in order to obtain data suitable for taking hysteresis into account. The method is described and the results are presented. Subsequently, the hydraulic characteristics of the materials are determined and their impact to the capillary barriers efficiency is investigated. The barriers were compared from the viewpoint of their efficiency using the measured data and tipping trough measurements made elsewhere. Explanation of the found differences was suggested and the effect of hysteresis was discussed., Dagmar Trpkošová and Jiří Mls., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The water retention capacity of coarse rock fragments is usually considered negligible. But the presence of rock fragments in a soil can play an important role in both water holding capacity and in hydraulic conductivity as well. This paper presents results of maximum water holding capacity measured in coarse rock fragments in the soil classified as cobbly sandy loam sampled at High Tatra mountains. It is shown, that those coarse rock (granite) fragments have the maximum retention capacity up to 0.16 volumetric water content. Retention curves of the four particular granite fragments have shown water capacity available for plants expressed in units of volumetric water content of 0.005 to 0.072 in the soil water potential range (0, -0.3 MPa). Available water capacity of stone fragments can contribute to the available water capacity of soil fine earth considerably and help to plants to survive during dry spells. and Hodnoty vodnej retenčnej kapacity hrubozrnných častíc skeletu v pôdach sa zvyčajne považujú za zanedbateľné. Avšak prítomnosť častíc skeletu v pôdach môže významne ovplyvňovať hodnoty vodnej kapacity pôdy ako aj jej hydraulickej vodivosti. Tento príspevok prezentuje výsledky merania maximálnej vodnej kapacity skeletu obsiahnutého v pôde. Pôdne vzorky boli odoberané v lokalite FIRE, Vysoké Tatry. Podľa meraní, hodnoty maximálnej retenčnej kapacity skeletu dosahovali 0,16 objemovej vlhkosti. Na základe retenčných kriviek pre 4 vybrané žulové kamene môžeme povedať, že hodnoty využiteľnej vodnej kapacity, vyjadrené v jednotkách objemu vody v pôde sa pohybovali od 0,005 do 0,072 pre vodný potenciál pôdy od 0 do -0,3 MPa. Využiteľná vodná kapacita častíc skeletu takto môže významne doplňovať využiteľnú vodnú kapacitu jemnozeme a pomáha rastlinám prežiť suché obdobia.