Root Water Uptake Process for Different Types of Soil in Unsteady Infiltration from Periodic Trapezoidal Channels

Abstract

This study involves a non-linear partial differential equation known as Richard’s Equation. An unsteady infiltration from trapezoidal periodic irrigation channel with root-water uptake is considered as the problem. To solve the problem, A set of transformations, Kirchhoff transformation, dimensionless variables, Batu’s transformation and Laplace transformation, are employed to transform Richard’s Equation into a modified Helmholtz equation. Finally, the transformation is solved numerically using The Dual Reciprocity Method (DRM) with a predictor-corrector scheme. Employing Gaver-Stehfest formulae and diffusivity factor, distributions of root water uptake process are obtained as sink term of the problem.