Sathyanarayan Rao, PhD

Environmental Sensing & Inverse Problems

Process-Based Mechanistic Model for Soil-Root Electrical Conduction

First mechanistic model to couple root water uptake (R-SWMS) with 3D electrical simulations (PyGIMLi), quantifying how roots distort standard petrophysical relations. Published in Vadose Zone Journal, 2019.

Period
2017–2018
Where
UCLouvain — PhD Research
Role
PhD Researcher
Methods
Coupled Modeling, Root Hydraulics, Python/PyGIMLi
Current lines through the soil-root continuum, with the L-curve used to choose the regularisation parameter
Current lines through the soil-root continuum, with the L-curve used to choose the regularisation parameter

Research Question: Can we build a mechanistic model incorporating BOTH root architecture and water dynamics?

Approach:

  • Integrated R-SWMS (root water uptake) with PyGIMLi (electrical modeling)
  • 3D finite element models with 500,000+ tetrahedral elements
  • Separated direct (root conductivity) vs indirect (moisture) electrical effects
  • First model to achieve this level of physical realism

Finding: Roots impact petrophysical relations — the standard Archie’s Law doesn’t work when roots are present. We quantified exactly how roots modify the soil’s electrical behavior.

Publication: Vadose Zone Journal (2019) Thesis Chapter: 3 Tools: Python, PyGIMLi, Gmsh, R-SWMS, EIDORS