A good question. It came in very late in the release cycle. And
here is what the developer gave me:
Old Moisture Model
The old moisture model was based on a constant diffusion of moisture
through the soil. This model started with the soil in two layers.
Every time the soil properties update is called, it will look at the two soils
moisture layers and asses which layer has more moisture in it. It then
takes moisture from the higher moisture layer and redistributes it to the lower
moisture layer at a constant rate.
Moisture Model Update
The new moisture transport model is based on a project which looked at the
way moisture transports through soil. It uses a finite difference method
to divide the soil into layers (nodes). It redistributes the soil moisture
according the model described in:
Marcel G Schaap and Martinus Th. van Genuchten, 2006, 'A modified Maulem-van
Genuchten Formulation for Improved Description of the Hydraulic Conductivity
Near Saturation?, Vadose Zone Journal 5 (1), p 27-34.
I neglected to get anything into the documentation. However, due to
increased run times with the new model, I allowed the old model to remain as an
option.
(The above was basically all I was given for documentation.)
Sorry for the confusion.
At 07:23 AM 10/22/2010, Georgios KOKOGIANNAKIS wrote:
Hi everybody,
Is there any information on the new updates of the Green roof model? I can see
that there is now an extra option for "Moisture Diffusion Calculation
Method" and that the available choices are "Advanced" and
"Simple". However, this entry is not included in the input/output
documentation and it is neither described in the Engineering Reference
Document. Is there any document that describes the changes? Are the changes
related with the "RoofIrrigation" object and in what way?
Many thanks,
Dr Georgios Kokogiannakis
Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET)
The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China
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