AN ANALYTICAL SOLUTION TECHNIQUE FOR ONE-DIMENSIONAL, STEADY VERTICALWATER-FLOW IN LAYERED SOILS

An analytical solution technique was developed for one-dimensional, st eady vertical water flow in variably saturated, layered soils with arb itrary hydraulic properties. The solution technique is based on the ex act integral solution for the Gardner exponential hydraulic conductivi ty function. The exact solution is extended for use with arbitrary hyd raulic property functions, or measured K(h) data, by approximating In K(h) with piecewise-linear curve segments and integrating analytically , segment by segment. The resulting analytical solution technique is a ccurate, computationally efficient, and applicable to unsaturated and/ or saturated conditions. Several application examples are presented, i ncluding a comparison with earlier experimental results.