A porus media problem arising in the study of water transport in soil and roots

A radial flow model is developed to describe flow of water from soil to a single root. This model extends the previous radial models by including the endodermis as a layer with resistance to water flow.

Also, a second model, a soil-root water uptake model, is developed to describe water flow through soil containing roots. The effects of the root system are incorporated into the sink term of the equation. The sink term is evaluated by solving a two-point Boundary Value Problem.

Discrete approximations are derived for the numerical solutions of these problems. Properties of solutions to the continuous and discrete problems are derived and numerical computer simulations are discussed for both models.