Imagine you have a field with excessive salt buildup. Assume the volumetric water content is 0.35 cm3 cm-3 and the root zone is 120 cm deep.
If the soil in the field is a clay loam soil with Ks= 5.5 cm per day, b = 5.2, and saturated water content (Theta)=0.5 cm3 cm-3, the hydraulic conductivity followed Campbell’s model, and the flow was under unit gradient conditions (i.e. negligible matric potential gradient), then how long would it take to leach out the salts?
Vaibhav B. Shelar i can give you the answer but is better to supply you the text with all the formulas to water movement and salts by the FAO
https://www.fao.org/3/x5871e/x5871e04.htm#:~:text=Leaching%20is%20most%20often%20accomplished,of%20the%20area%20under%20reclamation.
The leaching process duration can be estimated using the leaching requirement formula:
t = H/K
where:
- T is the leaching time,
- H is the leaching requirement (difference between initial and desired salt content), and
- K is the hydraulic conductivity.
Your question as formulated cannot be answered. You need to provide the initial salt concentration and final salt concentration, the concentration of ions in the leachate, and the depth of soil that needs to be flushed. Keep in mind that in theory you will never be able to leach out all of the salts as the rate of dissolving depends on the concentration of salt in the soil. As the soil concentration decreases, the rate of dissolving the salts also decreases. My soil physics is too rusty to provide more detail. It looks like you have a good reference to get you going.
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