An Analytical Solution for Horizontal Infiltration in Highly Selected Porous Media: Anchoring in Sorptivity and Van Genuchten-Mualem Parameter
This is an updated version of a previously posted article that had been published on June 17, 2025 on this blog. Celso Luiz Prevedello Abstract This work proposes an analytical model specifically for highly selected porous media (n>10), using a continuous sigmoidal moisture profile to describe the transition zone during horizontal infiltration. The parameter n represents an adjustment factor of the van Genuchten (1980) model for the soil water retention curve, and is related to the uniformity of pore distribution. The parameter n>10 of van Genuchten suggests a very uniform pore distribution. The specialization for n>10 addresses the growing demand of modern engineering for synthetic and designed materials with very uniform pore distribution, widely used in industrial filtration, draining pavement, technical substrates and advanced geotechnical systems. The model was developed specifically for materials with characteristics similar to very well selected sands, such as the porou...