Abstract

Prabeer Kumar Parhi

Owing to their simplicity and yielding reasonably satisfactory results in most applications, Kostiakov (KT) and modified Kostiakov (MKT) empirical infiltration models have been quite popular and frequently used in various water resource applications world over. With an improvement to the modified Kostiakov model known as revised modified Kostiakov (RMKT) model, there has been a need to critically analyze and investigate all the three popular empirical models to arrive at some conclusions regarding their suitability of application. The present study allows to conclude that except for Yolo light clay, where the performance was similar to the one of MKT, RMKT model performs better than MKT and KT models for the Plain field sand, Columbia sandy loam and Narsingpur Clay, with a very significant improvement in performance for Columbia sandy loam. Hence the use of RMKT model is strongly recommended for Columbia sandy loam type of soils and soils which are not fully saturated whilst MKT model can be recommended for the soils which are completely saturated with water.