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Analysis of Water Flow under Trickle Irrigation: I. Theory and Numerical Solution

Station de Science du Sol, INRA, Domaine St-Paul, B.P. 91, 84140 Montfavet, France

M.Th. van Genuchten^*

USDA-ARS, U.S. Salinity Lab., 4500 Glenwood Drive, Riverside, CA 92501

*Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Estimating the size of the ponded surface area is a major source of error in modeling water movement under trickle irrigation. After reviewing available approaches and models for simulating water flow under trickle irrigation, we present a new numerical solution of the governing partial differential equations that improves the prediction of the size of the ponded area at the soil surface. A common formulation could be used for both Cartesian and axicylindrical flow geometries. The spatial operator was approximated using finite differences, and time integration was performed with an implicit method. Nonlinearity was treated by means of a fixed point iterative algorithm. The proposed model is applicable to saturated-unsaturated flow in layered soils having anisotropic hydraulic properties. Accuracy and stability of the solution are checked and comparisons made with previous numerical solutions for several trickle irrigation and other unsaturated flow problems.

Received for publication May 2, 1988.