DYNAMIC-PROGRAMMING ANALYSIS OF PORE-SPACE

A method based on the principles of dynamic programming is developed a nd applied to digital soil images to determine tortuosity, effective p orosity, and the shortest paths available for flow. Pathways for flow are determined by minimizing a resistance factor. Analysis of two nume rically simulated soils finds that a platy soil has greater effective porosity and smaller tortuosity than a layered soil. The ability of th e dynamic programming model to analyse large digital images with compl ex pore structure is subsequently demonstrated by the analysis of a di gital image of an agricultural soil. The results from the agricultural soil point to the need for digital soil image analysis to be three-di mensional if convective and diffusive soil properties are to be examin ed. It is demonstrated that, because determination of Row paths can be treated as a routing problem solved by applying a few simple rules, d ynamic programming analysis is not limited by complexity of pore struc tures.