Effects of temporally correlated infiltration on water flow in an unsaturated–saturated system

Original Paper
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Abstract

Effects of temporally correlated infiltration on water flow in an unsaturated–saturated system were investigated. Both white noise and exponentially correlated infiltration processes were considered. The moment equations of the pressure head (ψ) were solved numerically to obtain the variance and autocorrelation functions of ψ at 14 observation points. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to verify the numerical results and to estimate the power spectrum of ψ (S ψψ ). It was found that as the water flows through the system, the variance of the ψ (\( \sigma_{\psi }^{2} \)) were damped by the system: the deeper in the system, the smaller the \( \sigma_{\psi }^{2} \), and the larger the correlation timescale of the infiltration process (λ I ), the larger the \( \sigma_{\psi }^{2} \). The unsaturated–saturated system gradually filters out the short-term fluctuations of ψ and the damping effect is most significant in the upper part of the system. The fluctuations of ψ is non-stationary at early time and becomes stationary as time progresses: the larger the value of λ I , the longer the non-stationary period. The correlation timescale of the ψ (λ ψ ) increases with depth and approaches a constant value at depth: the larger the value of λ I , the larger the value of λ ψ . The results of the estimated S ψψ is consistent with those of the variance and autocorrelation function.

Keywords

Unsaturated–saturated system Damping effect Infiltration correlation Temporal correlation 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported with the research grants from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC-41272260; NSFC-41330314; NSFC-41302180), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (SBK201341336).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Center for Hydrosciences ResearchNanjing UniversityNanjingPeople’s Republic of China
  2. 2.School of Earth Sciences and EngineeringNanjing UniversityNanjingPeople’s Republic of China
  3. 3.Department of GeoscienceUniversity of IowaIowa CityUSA

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