i Qualifying the Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity and Corresponding Infiltration Processes by Zuhier Alakayleh A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama December 14, 2019 Keywords: groundwater, forward modeling, clay-sand mixtures, hydraulic barrier, infiltration technique, soil moisture content. Copyright 2019 by Zuhier Alakayleh Approved by Xing Fang, Co-Chair, Professor of Civil Engineering T. Prabhakar Clement, Co-Chair, Professor of Civil Engineering Lauren Beckingham, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Ming-Kuo Lee, Professor of Geosciences