Abstract: Abstract: Water scarcity is one of the major limitations to agriculture sustainable development in dryland areas. Biochar as a promising novel alternative of soil amendment to improve soil quality has received a wide attention. Understanding the effects of biochar on soil water infiltration process and evaporation characteristics will provide the scientific basis and technical support for the biochar applying in dry farming regions. Aiming to study the soil water infiltration and evaporation characteristics of different application patterns with different addition amount, the soil column simulation experiment was conducted under the condition of ponding infiltration. Biochar (pyrolysis temperature of 450-480 ℃, carbonization time of 8-10 h) derived from apple wood was applied to soil (Eum-Orthric) in 3 patterns (A (surface layer soil 0-10 cm), B (underlying soil 10-20 cm), and C (plough layer soil 0-20 cm)) and 4 application amounts (0, 1%, 2% and 4% (w/w)), all treatments with triplicate. Compared with control group, the wetting front migration rate of all application patterns of biochar at the rate of 1%, the application pattern A or C at the rate of 2% and the application pattern B at the rate of 4% were decreased, however, the application pattern A and C at the rate of 4% and the application pattern B at the rate of 2% could increase the migration rate. After 50 min since infiltration starting, the wetting front depths of the application pattern C at the rate of 2%, the application pattern A at the rate of 1%, the application pattern A at the rate of 2%, the application pattern B at the rate of 1%, the application pattern C at the rate of 1% and the application pattern B at the rate of 4% were 137.0, 139.8, 142.0, 145.0,149.0 and 150.0 mm respectively, lower than control group (153.5 mm) significantly (P<0.05). But the wetting front depths of application pattern A and C at the rate of 4% and application pattern B at the rate of 2% were 175.0, 168.0 and 165.7 mm respectively, significantly higher than control (153.5 mm) (P<0.05). While after 50 min since infiltration starting, adding 4% biochar with application pattern A, the cumulative infiltration amount increased significantly (P<0.05) by 10.63% compared with the control. At 1% biochar application rate, the cumulative infiltration amount decreased significantly (P<0.05) by 12.46%, 13.9% and 5.32% compared with the control under application pattern A, B and C, respectively. Adding biochar with application pattern C at the rate of 2% and 4%, the infiltration amount significantly decreased by 8.49% and 4.66% respectively (P<0.05) compared with the control. The relationships of wetting front distance and infiltration time in all treatments could be described by the power function with the determination coefficient greater than 0.996. The Philip infiltration model only suited to describe the soil water infiltration process of application pattern C, with the determination coefficient ranging from 0.996 to 0.999. The Kostiakov infiltration model was suitable for all treatments with the determination coefficient ranging from 0.996 to 0.999. During the successive evaporation of 35 d, all treatments had no significant difference in the cumulative evaporation compared to the control (P<0.05). But there were significant differences (P<0.05) about the cumulative evaporation between the application pattern A at the rate of 2% (62.67 mm) and application pattern C at the rate of 2% (54.86 mm), the application A at the rate of 2% (62.67 mm) and the rate of 4% (59.53 mm), the application pattern C at the rate of 1% (60.18 mm) and 2% (54.86 mm). Notably, the application pattern A at the rate of 4% and application pattern C at the rate of 2% decreased the cumulative evaporation by 5.96% and 7.84% respectively compared to the control. Our results show that both biochar application pattern and amount can affect the soil infiltration capacity and evaporation characteristics. Adding higher rate (4%) biochar in surface layer soil can improve hydrologic characteristics of argillaceous soil.