Acquisition of an Unsaturated Flow Apparatus (UFA) with Technical Support to Investigate Hydrologic Processes in the Vadose Zone

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0343514PerfectThis grant supports the acquisition of an unsaturated flow apparatus (UFA) and two years of half-time technical support for a UFA operator in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee. The UFA consists of an ultracentrifuge and pump that uses acceleration to drive water through porous media. The UFA will be used to measure unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, a difficult parameter to measure in porous media but important for intelligently applying hydrologic models of vadose zone processes. The UFA will be also used to measure colloidal, pathogen, and solute transport though variably saturated porous media. The operational range of rotation speeds and flow rates of the UFA allows for simulation of hydraulic conductivities between 10-4 and 10-11 cm/s. This will be the first such device available at a U.S. academic institution.***