To test the performance of a numeric model in prediction of water content (θ) and tension (|ψm|) in time and space, data were chosen from the literature on two porous materials with different hydraulic properties: a marine sand (quatzipsamment) of Tottori, Japan and a sandy phase Red-Yellow Latosol (Haplustox) of Piracicaba, SP. The results led to the following conclusions: (a) in both porous materials studied, the behaviour of the model was highly significant, with the profiles of humidity aligning satisfactorily in time; (b) the model was also able to predict very well the behaviour of the flux density in relation to time; (c) the largest deviations of the model in relation to those of the field data were found at the initial times of the water redistribution process, although these deviations had occurred in just 0.2% of the total time studied in the sand dune experiment, and 2.0% for Latosol; (d) the model performance was slightly superior for the marine sand in relation to that for the Latosol, probably due to the higher homogeneity of the hydraulic properties of the sand. This work was carried out during the second semester of 1996, at the Universidade Federal do Paraná.
soil-water redistribution; Richard's equation; numerical model