WWRC 85-30
A Finite Element Collocation Method for Variably Saturated Flows in Porous Media
Abstract
One common formulation of Richard's equation for variably saturated flows in porous
media treats pressure head as the principal unknown and moisture content as a constitutive
variable. Numerical approximations to this "head-based" formulation often exhibit
mass-balance errors arising from inaccuracies in the temporal discretization. This article
presents a finite-element collocation scheme using a mass-conserving formulation. The
article also proposes a computable index of global mass balance.
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