Application of Leak 2D to Describe Preferential Water Flow in a Soil Containing Artificial Macropores

Charalampos Paraskevas, Dimitrios Karpouzos () and Christos Babajimopoulos
Additional contact information
Charalampos Paraskevas: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Dimitrios Karpouzos: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Christos Babajimopoulos: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Mathematics, 2023, vol. 11, issue 13, 1-20

Abstract: Leak 2D is a new two-dimensional dual permeability mathematical model for the simulation of the preferential flow in the vadose zone. In this model, water flow in the soil matrix domain is described by the two-dimensional h-based Richards’ equation. Water flow in the fracture domain is estimated using the kinematic wave approach. Richards’ equation is solved by a combination of the alternating direction implicit (A.D.I.) method and the Douglas and Jones predictor−corrector method. The kinematic wave equation is solved explicitly. In the present paper, Leak 2D is calibrated and validated with data obtained in a Hele–Shaw apparatus filled with sand. Preferential flow is achieved by inserting four artificial macropores of various sizes into the soil. Six irrigations of various intensities and durations were used for the calibration and validation process. The water content at various depths was recorded by five sensors that were inserted into the soil. A comparison of the simulated water content with the measured profiles shows that Leak 2D can sufficiently describe preferential flow into the unsaturated zone of the soil, even under extreme irrigation conditions.

Keywords: preferential flow; two-dimensional dual-permeability model; model calibration; model validation; unsaturated flow modelling; Hele-Shaw cell; artificial macropores (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/13/2889/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/13/2889/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:13:p:2889-:d:1180902

Access Statistics for this article

Mathematics is currently edited by Ms. Emma He

More articles in Mathematics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().