CELLULAR AUTOMATA MODELING OF FLOWS IN UNSATURATED SOILS

AN INNOVATIVE MODEL, BASED ON CELLULAR AUTOMATA (CA) COMPUTING, IS PROPOSED FOR FLOWS IN UNSATURATED SOILS. TRANSPORT PROCESSES IN UNSATURATED POROUS FORMATIONS ARE NORMALLY GOVERNED BY STRONGLY NONLINEAR PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS. NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS REMAIN THE MOST FEASIBLE MEANS OF SOLVING THESE EQUATIONS, FOR PRACTICAL PROBLEMS. CELLULAR AUTOMATA, A MATHEMATICAL TECHNIQUE BASED SOLELY ON BOOLEAN ALGEBRA, IS PROPOSED AS AN ALTERNATIVE MODELIN TOOL FOR THESE NONLINEAR EQUATIONS. IN RECENT YEARS, CA MODELING HAS BEEN SUCCESSULLLY APPLIED TO A VARIETY OF PROBLEMS, RANGING FROM HYUDRODYNAMICS TO PLASMA PHYSICS. THE COMPUTATIONAL INTENSITY IS A FRACTION OF THE INVOLVED IN OTHER NUMERICAL MODELING METHODS. THE END PRODUCT OF THE RESEARCH WILL BE AN EFFIFICENT TOOL FOR SIMULATING FLOWS IN AGRICULTURAL LANDS.