TWO-DIMENSIONAL AND 3-DIMENSIONAL STEADY QUASI-LINEAR INFILTRATION FROM BURIED AND SURFACE CAVITIES USING BOUNDARY ELEMENT TECHNIQUES

A general numerical method is presented for solving the problem of quasi-linearized steady infiltration from general two-dimensional and axisymmetric surface cavities and from a general cavity buried at an arbitrary depth in either a two- or three-dimensional semi-infinite porous medium. Numerical results are compared with known analytical results for the cases of a shallow circular pond and a circular cylindrical cavity and a spherical cavity buried in an infinite medium. Further results are presented graphically illustrating the effect of an upper surface on the flux from a circular cavity and also the effect on the size of the effective wetted region.