Mass-conservative finite volume methods on 2-D unstructured grids for the Richards’ equation

The solution to the 2-D time-dependent unsaturated flow equation is numerically approximated by a second-order accurate cell-centered finite-volume discretization on unstructured grids. The approximation method is based on a vertex-centered Least Squares linear reconstruction of the solution gradients at mesh edges. A Taylor series development in time of the water content dependent variable in a finite-difference framework guarantees that the proposed finite volume method is mass conservative. A Picard iterative scheme solves at each time step the resulting non-linear algebraic problem. The performance of the method is assessed on five different test cases and implementing four distinct soil constitutive relationships. The first test case deals with a column infiltration problem. It shows the capability of providing a mass-conservative behavior. The second test case verifies the numerical approximation by comparison with an analytical mixed saturated–unsaturated solution. In this case, the water drains from a fully saturated portion of a 1-D column. The third and fourth test cases illustrate the performance of the approximation scheme on sharp soil heterogeneities on 1-D and 2-D multi-layered infiltration problems. The 2-D case shows the passage of an abrupt infiltration front across a curved interface between two layers. Finally, the fifth test case compares the numerical results with an analytical solution that is developed for a 2-D heterogeneous soil with a source term representing plant roots. This last test case illustrates the formal second-order accuracy of the method in the numerical approximation of the pressure head.