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Uncertainty analysis of transient unsaturated flow in bounded domain
Author(s) -
Ferrante Marco,
Bru Bruno,
Yeh T.C. Jim
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2001wr001015
Subject(s) - pressure head , transient (computer programming) , wetting , boundary value problem , richards equation , discretization , flow (mathematics) , porous medium , mechanics , boundary (topology) , head (geology) , mathematics , geotechnical engineering , mathematical analysis , porosity , thermodynamics , geology , physics , computer science , water content , geomorphology , operating system
This paper analyzes the head variance during transient flows in unsaturated porous media. The analysis is based on a first‐order Taylor series expansion of the discretized Richards' equation and stochastic conceptualization of hydrologic properties in space. Effects of boundary conditions and flow conditions (drying or wetting) were examined for different soil models. Results of the study indicate that a constant flux boundary condition affected the pressure head variance distribution close to the surface, originating a decrease of the values at early times during wetting scenarios. On the other hand, a constant head boundary condition strongly affected the variance profiles during both transient and steady flows, also far from the boundary.