Numerical modelling of soil water plant interaction

Abstract

The mathematical modelling of transient soil water flow in the presence of plant roots has been undertaken by several authors. In most of the models, the water uptake by roots is represented by a volumetric sink term, which is added to the continuity equation for soil water flow in the unsaturated zone. The sink term in the model needs detailed information about the root system such as root radius, root length, root density etc. Experimental evaluation of root system is both time consuming and costly. Therefore, to overcome this, the present paper deals with the solution of transient two dimensional axi -symmetric radial flow Richards equation where the volumetric sink term is computed by assigning known suction head at the root-soil interface as a boundary condition. The governing Richards equation is solved numerically by using an Iterative Alternating Direction Implicit explicit (IADIE) finite difference scheme.

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