The researchers looked at how the amount of water in a mixture of bentonite and other materials affects how water moves through it. They found that changing the initial water content didn't really change how fast water could flow through the mixture. They also saw that the air entry value increased as the initial water content decreased. The researchers used a special technique to measure how fast water could move through the mixture when it wasn't fully saturated, and found that it varied depending on the initial water content. Overall, the amount of water at the start didn't have a big impact on how water moved through the mixture when it was mostly saturated or had very high suction values.