Mathematical model of infiltration in trickle irrigation

Authors

Abstract

The determination of soil wetting front which caused by emitters is one of the important issues in designing trickle irrigation system. In this study, a mathematical model introduced in order to study the position of soil wetting front during irrigation by point emitters in homegenious soil in unsteady condition. The model solves governing differential equation of unsaturated flow in cylindrical coordinated system with ADI procedure. The proposed model
showes very good agreement with the actual laboratories data. Evaluation of mass balance of water inflow to soil and variation of soil moisture in soil profile indicated that there is five percent erorr in the computation which may be neglected in practical purposes.

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