Numerical simulation of water flow in unsaturated soil

In this paper, the Galerkin finite element and finite difference methods were employed to simulate the water flow in unsaturated soil. The finite element and finite difference schemes were used for spatial and time discretization of the problem, respectively. The problem is nonlinear and the Picard iterative method is used for this purpose. The numerical simulation with an example was carried out to predict the pressure head and moisture content within the soil profile. For validation of developed approach, the obtained results are compared with those obtained from HYDRUS-1D software packages. Findings revealed that the results of both applied numerical approaches were in close agreement to those obtained from the HYDRUS-1D software packages.

Keywords:

Unsaturated flow , Richard , s equation , fiinite element method , Picard scheme , Hydrus-1D