Integrable Discrete Model for One‐Dimensional Soil Water Infiltration

Abstract

We propose an integrable discrete model of one‐dimensional soil water infiltration. This model is based on the continuum model by Broadbridge and White, which takes the form of nonlinear convection–diffusion equation with a nonlinear flux boundary condition at the surface. It is transformed to the Burgers equation with a time‐dependent flux term by the hodograph transformation. We construct a discrete model preserving the underlying integrability, which is formulated as the self‐adaptive moving mesh scheme. The discretization is based on linearizability of the Burgers equation to the linear diffusion equation, but the naïve discretization based on the Euler scheme which is often used in the theory of discrete integrable systems does not necessarily give a good numerical scheme. Taking desirable properties of a numerical scheme into account, we propose an alternative discrete model that produces solutions with similar accuracy to direct computation on the original nonlinear equation, but with clear benefits regarding computational cost.