Reduced Model of One-Dimensional Unsaturated Flow in Heterogeneous Soils with Spatially Stochastic Soil Hydraulic Conductivities
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
A reduced model for unsaturated flow in one-dimensional layered soils with local stochastic soil hydraulic conductivity is proposed. The reduced model relies on an improved closure assumption compared with straightforward truncation of moment equations for the statistics (expectation and covariance) of the volumetric water content, whereby certain higher-order moments can be expressed in terms of known quantities. The reduced model was compared numerically with (1) direct numerical simulations using homogenized soil properties and (2) agent-based stochastic direct numerical simulations, with soil hydraulic properties defined at the local (finite-difference cell) level. Numerical results showed that the reduced model successfully captures larger variations in water content of the unsaturated flow in heterogeneous soils compared with the solution resulting from homogenization.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Professor Sandra Houston for the education and support from the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe. They acknowledge the use of computing resources provided by the School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences at Arizona State University and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20 • Issue 3 • March 2020
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 30, 2018
Accepted: Jul 10, 2019
Published online: Dec 20, 2019
Published in print: Mar 1, 2020
Discussion open until: May 20, 2020
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