Effect of Parallel Strip Water Source Spacing on Lateral Infiltration Flux

M. García-Serrana [1], J. L. Nieber [1], J. S. Gulliver [1],
[1] University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Published in 2015

This analysis evaluates the importance of the lateral component of flow on the infiltration of water from parallel strip sources of water on the soil surface. Flow from such sources will be two-dimensional, having both vertical and lateral components. Here we examine the effect of the spacing between parallel strip sources and the texture of the soil on the rate of infiltration through a given strip source into the soil. For the analysis we use COMSOL Multiphysics® software with the Subsurface Flow Module to solve the two-dimensional Richards equation for steady-state flow conditions. We find that as the spacing between strips decreases the infiltration through individual strip sources decreases, and as the texture of the soil become finer for a given strip spacing the infiltration also decreases.