An Experimental Study of Coupled Heat and Water Transfer in Wettable and Artificially Hydrophobized Soils
2014
Davis, Dedrick D. | Horton, Robert | Heitman, Joshua L. | Ren, Tusheng
The effect of soil wettability on coupled heat and water transfer in soil is not well understood. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of soil wettability on coupled heat and water transfer for two wettable soils and their artificially hydrophobized counterparts. Closed soil cells instrumented with heat-pulse sensors provided in situ measurements of soil temperature, soil volumetric water content (θ), soil thermal conductivity (λ), and soil thermal diffusivity (α). Nonlinear temperature distributions developed in response to the 150°C m⁻¹ temperature gradients applied to the soil cells for both the wettable and hydrophobized soils due to soil moisture redistribution. Hydrophobized sand and silt loam soils had different responses relative to their wettable counterparts. Soil moisture redistribution was similar in the wettable and hydrophobized sand soils. Net water transfer was reduced by 56% in the hydrophobized silt loam compared with the wettable silt loam. Reduced net water transfer in the hydrophobized silt loam indicated that water vapor transfer must have been lower in the hydrophobized silt loam than in the wettable silt loam. Diffusive pathways for water vapor may increase due to hydrophobicity. In both the wettable and hydrophobized soils, λ and α decreased in the warm regions and increased in the cold regions of the soil cells due to soil moisture redistribution. Wettability is a function of water content, and relative to wettable soil, water redistribution in hydrophobized soil is reduced only when the water content is small enough for the soil to behave as hydrophobic. If the water content is large enough for a hydrophobized soil to behave as wettable, water redistribution is similar to that in a wettable soil.
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