Abstract: Based on the Philip's method and the Nestingen's method for soil water infiltration computation,a new modified Philip(MP) method describing the variation of water depth in a single-ring permeameter is proposed for estimating vertical hydraulic conductivity.The MP method was validated on the basis of water depths in the single-ring permeameter from a numerical simulation and experiment results with in indoor troughs.The result indicates that the estimated vertical hydraulic conductivity using the MP method is more accurate than those of using the original Philip method,the Nestingen method,and the Green-Ampt method,which shows prospects for future applications.