Upscaling of Soil Hydraulic Properties by Homogenization Theory

 

Rosangela Sviercoski

University of Arizona - Department of Mathematics

 

 

 

July 31, 200310:30 amSuite 150, Mesa Laboratory

 

 

 

 

Abstract:

 

Unsaturated flow is a very important component in the study of many large-scale hydrological and environmental processes, such as water balance issues, estimation of surfaces fluxes for the soi-vegetation-atmospheric models.  The hydrologic properties of the unsaturated zone often exhibit high degrees of spatial variability over a range of scales because of the heterogeneous nature of geologic formations.  Hydraulic property upscaling is a process that incorporates a mesh of hydraulic property that can be used in large-scale simulations.  In this talk, I will be presenting the method of homogenization, by using assymptotic analysis theory, which leads us to develop an analytical expression for an upscaled version of the flow through heterogeneous porous media.