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Steady Infiltration from Spherical Cavities
Author(s) -
Philip J. R.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1984.03615995004800040006x
Subject(s) - infiltration (hvac) , dimensionless quantity , point source , mechanics , moisture , radius , circular symmetry , physics , cavity wall , materials science , geometry , mathematics , optics , thermodynamics , composite material , meteorology , computer science , computer security
The problem of quasilinearized steady infiltration from spherical cavities, with the moisture potential fixed at the cavity surface, is solved exactly. Solutions are presented numerically and graphically for values of the dimensionless cavity radius R 0 in the range 0 to 10. The dependence on R 0 of total cavity flow, of the variation of infiltration rate around the cavity surface, and of the distributions of moisture content and potential, are examined. As R 0 increases, gravity increasingly distorts the moisture distribution from the symmetry produced by capillarity alone. This distortion, although marked, is less than one‐hundredth that for infiltration from circular cylindrical cavities: a vivid illustration of the stronger dominance of gravity over capillarity in two‐dimensional systems than in three‐dimensional ones. An earlier approximate solution of this problem proves accurate only for R 0 ⩽ 0.27. The cavity flow, evaluated by the present analysis, may be combined with the point source solution to give approximate results useful for the region deeper than 20 radii below the cavity.