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Horizontal infiltration into wet soil
Author(s) -
Witelski T. P.
Publication year - 1998
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 - 10.1029/98wr00775
Subject(s) - infiltration (hvac) , water content , wetting , soil science , homogeneous , front (military) , thermal diffusivity , environmental science , porous medium , geotechnical engineering , porosity , geology , materials science , thermodynamics , meteorology , physics , composite material
We obtain the long‐time asymptotic similarity solution for the wetting front for water absorption from a constant source into a homogeneous layer of soil with a preexisting moisture distribution. The presence of the initial water distribution in the soil introduces a time shift that advances the position of the wetting front. The time shift can be explicitly calculated for any form of diffusivity. A dynamic time shift is derived to yield a very efficient means for estimating the water content distribution and front position for all times in Brooks‐Corey‐type soil models.