The nonlinear solvers in numerical solution of water flow in variably saturated soils are prone to convergence difficulties. Many aspects can give rise to such difficulties, like very dry initial conditions, a steep pressure gradient and great variation of hydraulic conductivity occur across the wetting front during the infiltration of water.  So, the averaging method applied to compute hydraul...

This work presents a rigorous numerical validation of analytical stochastic models of steady state unsaturated flow in heterogeneous porous media. It also provides a crucial link between stochastic theory based on simplifying assumptions and empirical field and simulation evidence of variably saturated flow in actual or realistic hypothetical heterogeneous porous media. Statistical properties o...

We present a new two-parameter expression for relative hydraulic conductivity (RHC) of partially saturated soils. It is based on the premise of Assouline et al. [1998] that soil structures evolve from a uniform random fragmentation process. This assumption allows us to derive hydraulic properties of soils (water retention curves and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity) from primary properties, s...

Combined SPPE-IPPE method is proposed to obtain thermal parameters (thermal effusivity, diffusivity, conductivity and volume specific heat) of saturated (caproic C1O:O) and monoenoic unsaturated (oleic C18: 1, cis) fatty acids. The method was also used to investigate temperature behaviour of thermal parameters (around the melting point) for lauric acid (C12:O). The combined SPPE-IPPE approach e...

Measurement uncertainty is a key hindrance to the quanti_cation of water ~uxes at all scales of investigation[ Predictions of soil!water ~ux rely on accurate or representative measurements of hydraulic gradients and _eld! state hydraulic conductivity[ We quanti_ed the potential magnitude of errors associated with the parameters and variables used directly and indirectly within the DarcyÐBucking...