Homogenization of Richardsʼ equation of van Genuchten–Mualem model

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the homogenization of Richardsʼ equation of van Genuchten–Mualem model, which is a nonlinear degenerate parabolic differential equation. It is usually used to model the motion of saturated–unsaturated water flow in porous media. We firstly apply the Kirchhoff transformation to the equation and obtain a simpler equivalent equation with a linear oscillated diffusion term. Then under the real assumption for van Genuchten–Mualem model, we obtain the homogenized equation based on the two-scale convergence theory. Some results on the first order corrector are also presented.