%0 Journal Article
%T Soil-Water Characteristic Curve Modeling at Low Water Content: Empirical and Semi-Empirical Approaches
%A Marcel Bawindsom Kébr£¿
%A Fabien Cherblanc
%J International Journal of Engineering Research
%V 2
%N 7
%P 432-437
%D 2014
%I IJER
%X In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the most 
widely used semi-empirical models (van Genuchten (1980), 
Fayer and Simmons (1995) and Fredlund and Xing 
(1994)) and, an empirical model, the Modified Kovacs 
(MK) model for the determination of soil-water 
characteristic curve at the low water contents of two 
horizons of a soil from Burkina Faso. Combining terms 
from capillary state and adsorbed state of soil water gives a 
physical basis for the Modified Kovacs model. Our study 
confirms that the use of semi-empirical models requires 
somewhat large dataset covering the entire range of water 
content while the empirical model MK requires only basic 
geotechnical properties of soil and a few experimental 
points to adjust the parameters m and ac
 of the model. It 
appears that the MK model, by its simplicity and lower cost 
for the acquisition of experimental data, is the most 
appropriat
%K soil
%K water
%K arid
%K modelling
%U http://www.ijer.in/ijer/publication/v2s7/IJER_2013_704.pdf