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A finite element collocation method for variably saturated flows in porous media
Author(s) -
Allen Myron B.,
Murphy Carolyn
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
numerical methods for partial differential equations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.901
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1098-2426
pISSN - 0749-159X
DOI - 10.1002/num.1690010306
Subject(s) - discretization , porous medium , mathematics , finite element method , collocation (remote sensing) , collocation method , mathematical analysis , porosity , geotechnical engineering , computer science , geology , physics , thermodynamics , differential equation , ordinary differential equation , machine learning
One common formulation of Richard's equation for variably saturated flows in porous media treats pressure head as the principal unknown and moisture content as a constitutive variable. Numerical approximations to this “head‐based” formulation often exhibit mass‐balance errors arising from inaccuracies in the temporal discretization. This article presents a finite‐element collocation scheme using a mass‐conserving formulation. The article also proposes a computable index of global mass balance.