Sensitivity analysis of flow in unsaturated heterogeneous porous media: Theory, numerical model, and its verification
Sensitivity analysis is one of the tools available for analyzing the effects of parameter uncertainty and soil heterogeneity on the transport of moisture in the unsaturated similar porous media. Direct differentiation of the discretized Richards equation with respect to parameters defining spatial variability leads to linear systems of equations for elementary sensitivities that are readily solved in conjunction with the original equation. These elementary sensitivities can be easily transformed into approximations of functional sensitivities and into sensitivities of boundary fluxes. A numerical implementation of this technique in one space dimension yields results that are consistent with exact analytical solutions and with numerical perturbation calculations. The effects of a given heterogeneity can be modeled adequately provided that the maximum relative change of the scale factor from one grid point to the next not exceed a number on the order of unity. Copyright 1990 by the American Geophysical Union.
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- Environmental Engineering
- 4011 Environmental engineering
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- 3707 Hydrology
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- 0905 Civil Engineering
- 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Environmental Engineering
- 4011 Environmental engineering
- 4005 Civil engineering
- 3707 Hydrology
- 0907 Environmental Engineering
- 0905 Civil Engineering
- 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience