ABSTRACT
The instantaneous profile method is an effective method for estimating the permeability of unsaturated soils. However, it requires the use of many expensive measuring sensors and a large amount of soils, and in the case of fine soils, it is difficult to set up the specimen. Therefore, an experiment method has been developed in Chubu University to estimate the permeability of unsaturated soils. It is an improved type of the original instantaneous profile method, and is able to measure the permeability of many kinds of soils. The method is characterized by the unsteady condition of water profile and linear approximation of moisture distribution. In this paper, this improved instantaneous profile method (approximated profile method) is applied to sandy soils. Application of this experiment method is discussed in comparison with other steady methods, agreement between this method and others is demonstrated, and several notes concerning directions of use are given.
