DEVELOPMENT AND CONVERGENCE CRITERIA EVALUATION OF A WATER FLOW MODEL IN VARIABLY SATURATED POROUS MEDIA

摘要

In this paper, a water flow model in variably saturated porous media based on Dogan was developed. Two widely used convergence criteria were evaluated through the simulation of infiltration in two cases. One was by the difference between two successive pressure heads (Criterion 1). The other was by the difference between the corresponding water contents (Criterion 2). The pressure head and water content were very closely predicted by the two convergence criteria. For a relatively dry condition, Criterion 1 would have better mass conservation property than Criterion 2. For a relatively wet condition, the two criteria would not have much difference in the mass balance errors. The total number of iterations using Criterion 2 was always less than that using Criterion 1.