Unsaturated Flow

Derivation of Governing Equations

Description of Mass Balance Consideration

Derivation of governing differential equation is obtained
by considering a volumetric element.

The statement of mass balance is:

The difference between the total flux into the element and
the total flux out of the element is equal to the rate of
change of volumetric water content.

The expression for mass balance is

) 1 (
dt
d
z
q
y
q
x
q
z
y
x

=

Assuming Darcys Law

) 2 (
s
H
k q

=

Where
H z h + =

Unsat7-1



Derivation of Flow Equation


Substituting Eqn. 1 into 2 yields


dt
d
z
H
k
z y
H
k
y x
H
k
x
z y x

=
(

+
(

+
(

) ( ) ( ) (



The equation for one-dimensional flow can be written as

) 4 ( ) (
t z
H
k
z
z

=
(

Rewriting Eqn. 4


) 5 ( 1 ) (
t z
h
k
z
z

=
(

|
.
|

\
|
+

Eqn. 5 is the one-dimensional form of the Richards equation in
the direction parallel to gravity.


Unsat7-2


Rewriting Eqn 5.


) 6 (
) (
) (
t z
k
z
h
k
z
z
z

+
(

) 7 ( 1
) (
) (
2
2
t z
h
z
k
z
h
k
z
z

=
|
.
|

\
|
+

Eqn. 7 above must be used cautiously because it says that flow
can be induced solely by a variation in the permeability,
which is not correct for saturated soils but could be correct for
unsaturated soils.


Use of Soil-Water Diffusivity


Soil-water Diffusivity is defined as


) 8 ( ) ( ) (

=
h
k D



Unsat7-3


Assuming that both and h vary continuously and applying the
chain rule:

) 9 ( ) ( ) (
z
h
k
z
h
k

Eqn. 6 then becomes

) 10 (
) (
) (
t z
k
z
D
z
z

+
(

Unsaturated Flow Conditions

Steady State Conditions


Steady state conditions require that the flow rate remains
constant.

Looking at the above equations, the soil-water property must
remain constant and the gradient must remain constant with
respect to time.

The right-hand side of the equations is exactly equal to zero.

Solutions for steady state flow are very similar to solutions for
saturated soils.
Unsat7-4


Unsat7-5

Transient Conditions

Transient conditions occur for most unsaturated soil flow
problems.

Examples of transient flow include when soil is either wetting or
drying, or when the soil is either wetting or drying with net
flow into or out of the soil.

Unsaturated Flow Solutions

The above equations are nonlinear since the solution for flow
depends on soil properties that depend on the flow
conditions.

An iterative approach is required in which the soil properties are
assumed constant for a small increment of time in order to
obtain a solution.

Analytical solutions are available for limited cases such as the
example of one-dimensional flow used to compute
permeability.

Numerical solutions include finite difference methods and finite
element solutions.

For finite element solutions, the right-hand side of the equation
is approximated by a finite difference approximation.

A computer program is required for solutions.