Mingchi Liu¹⁾, Takayuki Kojima²⁾, Akira Tanaka²⁾, and Diankui Chenh^1)
1)Beijing Vegetable Research Center, Beijing 100089,China
 ²⁾ Facuity of Agriculture, Saga University, Saga 840‑85V2, Japan

Keywords: finite element method, simulation, soil water distribution, ceramic pipe. b

Abstract: The finite element method was used for simulating two-dimensional water movement and distribution in the soil. The model is based on the Richards' equation for transient water flow. The half section of the cultivation bed was subdivided into 321 triangular elements. On the basis of investigating the characteristic functions of the water potential and hydraulic conductivity of the soil and the ceramic pipe, the simulating of soil water distributions under different irrigation methods, different hydraulic conductivities of the pipes and different negative pressures inside the pipe were carried out. The soil water content in the new system could always be maintained at a suitable value (0.40‑0.41) throughout the experiment, but tor the surface irrigation, the soil water content widely fluctuated from 0.36 to 0.45. These simulating results correspond with the observed results in a lettuce field experiment. It shows that the finite element method was a useful tool for simulating two-dimensional water movement and distribution in the soil.

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