A Hypersingular Boundary Integral Equation for a Class of Problems Concerning Infiltration from Periodic Channels

Abstract

In this paper some two dimensional infiltration problems are considered. The problems involve infiltration from periodic irrigation channels into a soil which contains impermeable sheets of finite width. The problems are reduced to boundary integral equations which may be solved numerically using established procedures. Numerical results are obtained to provide the distribution of the matric flux potential for some particular combinations of impermeable sheets and a semi-circular channel. The results indicate how the length, number and the depth of impermeable layers influences the distribution of water in an irrigated area.