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ABSTRACT
The gravity drainage of a heterogeneous porous medium was studied using a numerical solution of the flow equation. The medium was assumed to exhibit scale heterogeneity, the heterogeneity being specifically defined in terms of a linear variation of the saturated hydraulic conductivity with depth. Within the restrictions imposed by scale heterogeneity, the hydrologic characteristics were chosen so that their form validly represented real data. The spatial variation of the hydrologic characteristics was initially defined in terms of the air entry value of the medium at the point in question and an empirical relationship between the air entry value and the saturated hydraulic conductivity. Pressure head and water content profiles were obtained for three hydraulic conductivity distributions in which the conductivity decreased with depth. The pressure head profiles for these distributions revealed clearly the zones of positive pressures in the profiles and the slow decay of these pressures during drainage.
1 Contribution of the Soil & Water Conservation Research Division, ARS, USDA, Phoenix, Ariz.
2 Research Civil Engineer and Research Soil Scientist, respectively, US Water Conservation Laboratory, 4331 E. Broadway, Phoenix, Ariz. 85040. This paper was written while the senior author was on leave from The University of New South Wales, Kensington, N.S.W., Australia.
Received for publication August 30, 1971. Accepted for publication November 29, 1971.
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