Two‐ and three‐dimensional steady quasi‐linear infiltration from buried and surface cavities using boundary element techniques

Abstract

A general numerical method is presented for solving the problem of quasi‐linearized steady infiltration from general two‐dimensional and axisymmetric surface cavities and from a general cavity buried at an arbitrary depth in either a two‐ or three‐dimensional semi‐infinite porous medium. Numerical results are compared with known analytical results for the cases of a shallow circular pond and a circular cylindrical cavity and a spherical cavity buried in an infinite medium. Further results are presented graphically illustrating the effect of an upper surface on the flux from a circular cavity and also the effect on the size of the effective wetted region. Two‐dimensional surface cavities are also investigated, and the dependence of the flux on geometry, gravity, and capillarity is examined.