Soil hydrodynamics

Program :

• Soil physics
• General principles of hydrostatics (notions of adsorption, capillarity, water's energy potential, principles of material conservation, soil retention curves)
• Flow in saturated and unsaturated soils (Darcy's law, Richards' equation, etc.)
• Numerical solution of Richards' equation
• Water flow dynamics in the field
• Methodology for measuring soil hydrodynamic properties

This course places a strong emphasis on tutorials and practical work. Experiments will be carried out during sessions on agricultural plots. Calculation or simple modeling exercises will be carried out to illustrate the numerical application of all the physical concepts presented in lectures. The examples dealt with in these exercises will be based both on these experimental results and on specific agricultural problems. 

Skills objectives: acquire basic knowledge of water transfer processes in porous media, with applications to cultivated soils, and identify current scientific fronts for these processes.

Students must be able to understand the physical processes involved, interpret flow dynamics in soils, use models to simulate flows and analyze processes on the scale of an agricultural plot.

Prerequisites* :

Basic knowledge of physics: concepts of mass, weight, energy, work and understanding of the corresponding physical units.

Basic algebraic calculation skills, understanding of numerical functions and derivatives

Proficiency in Excel-type spreadsheets

Recommended prerequisites* :

Knowledge of soil science

The UE is assessed by a written test based on the lectures and tutorials given during the module.

Water balance, water potential, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, soil infiltrability, water cycle in the field, measurement methods, Darcy's law, Richards' law, modeling