Quasilinear infiltration from an elliptical cavity

We develop analytic solutions to the linearized steady-state Richards equation for head and total flowrate due to an elliptic cylinder cavity with a specified pressure head boundary condition. They are generalizations of the circular cylinder cavity solutions of Philip [Philip JR. Steady infiltration from circular cylindrical cavities. Soil Sci Soc Am J 1984;48:270–8]. The circular and strip sources are limiting cases of the elliptical cylinder solution, derived for both horizontally- and vertically-aligned ellipses. We give approximate rational polynomial expressions for total flowrate from an elliptical cylinder over a range of sizes and shapes. The exact elliptical solution is in terms of Mathieu functions, which themselves are generalizations of and computed from trigonometric and Bessel functions. The required Mathieu functions are computed from a matrix eigenvector problem, a modern approach that is straightforward to implement using available linear algebra libraries. Although less efficient and potentially less accurate than the iterative continued fraction approach, the matrix approach is simpler to understand and implement and is valid over a wider parameter range.