Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931

www.elsevier.com/locate/nonrwa

Analytical solutions for time-dependent heat conduction equation of

soil moisture
Xiang-Yu Ge a,b,∗ , Miki Wadati b , Gou-Guang Yan a
a Information School, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, #1 South Nanhu Road, Wuhan 430073, China
b Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

Received 26 February 2007; accepted 28 February 2008

Abstract

We present the analytical solutions for time-dependent heat conduction equation of soil moisture. Solutions for four different
types of initial, final and boundaries are obtained by use of moisture content as the primary variable. Our results are tested
numerically and the agreements are excellent.
Crown Copyright c 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Analytical solutions; Time-dependent heat conduction equation; Governing equation; Numerical solutions

1. Introduction

In the past five decades, many developments have been made in the mathematical theory of the conduction of heat
in solids. For instance, see Carslaw and Jaeger’s “Conduction of Heat in Solids” appeared in 1959 [1]. Exact solutions
for heat conduction equation of soil moisture remain as an interesting topic. As an application, in port and coastal
engineering, and geotechnique engineering, the approximate closed form solution [6] is one of the simplest models of
evaporative drying of dredged sediments deposited in land impoundments [2–4]. It has the advantage that the moisture
content profile at any time can be computed directly. However, the work in [6] only considered the relatively simple
cases where sediment layers are deposited at a uniform initial void over impermeable base material. In practice,
dredged sediments are often deposited in more than one layer, the base material may be relatively permeable, and
flow within the sediments may be influenced by the presence of a water table. Since the flow of water in soils is
better described by the soil moisture potential, it is the moisture suction gradients rather than the moisture content
gradients that is used as the main variant [2,5]. Moreover, if soil moisture suction is used as the primary variable,
fewer boundary conditions are required. Consequently, the simplest model solutions of evaporative drying problems
was derived [6]. However, the moisture characteristic curves [2,7] of the sediments are required to make the suction
profiles to be converted to moisture content profiles.

∗ Corresponding author at: Information School, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, #1 South Nanhu Road, Wuhan 430073, China.
Fax: +86 27 88385285.
E-mail address: xiangyu ge@163.com (X.-Y. Ge).

c 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1468-1218/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright
doi:10.1016/j.nonrwa.2008.02.035
1924 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931

In this paper we consider the cases involving both one and two sediment layers in the soil using moisture suction
as the primary variable. We present analytical solutions of time-dependent heat conduction equation for evaporative
drying of dredged sediments deposited in land impoundments. A normalized dimensionless governing equation with
multiple sediment layers is introduced in Section 2. A method to solve linear flow equation of heat in the solid
bounded by two sediment layers is presented in Section 3. Sediment layers deposited on an impermeable base or with
free drainage to the water table at the base, or on a desiccated sediment layer with the same conditions at its base
are considered in Section 4. Solutions for the cases are obtained from only one equation. The analytical solutions are
tested by comparing with the corresponding numerical solutions, and one of the new solution is compared to suction
profiles obtained from two dredged sediment impoundments.

2. Governing equation

The governing equation for the drying of moist solids that is dominated by the diffusion, which is written as

∂s ∂ 2s
= K 2, (1)
∂t ∂z
for any given material, where s is a single-valued function of gravimetric moisture content, t and z are time and
vertical material coordinate, and K is vertical diffusivity for material coordinates.
Now we extend Eq. (1) to multiple sediment layers with different K by scaling the thicknesses of the underlying
layers relative to the uppermost layer. In this paper, we only consider two layers, but it readily can be extended to
multiple sediment layers. Two layers of different conductivities K U and K L meet at the interface. Let sU and s L
denote the temperatures in the two layers. If we assume that at the surface of separation the temperatures in the two
layers are the same, which requires sU = s L . The suction flux is continuous over the surface of separation, that requires
K U ∂s∂zU = K L ∂s∂zL , where the subscripts U and L denote properties of the upper and lower layers, respectively. Also
∂sU
changing the vertical coordinate of the lower layer to z ∗ = KKUL z, then we have ∂s L
∂z ∗ = ∂z . It is obvious that this
process can be repeated for any number of sediment layers.
To obtain solutions of Eq. (1) in a unified manner, we consider a normalized dimensionless governing equation.
The dimensionless form is introduced by defining the following variables: S = ssA is a dimensionless suction, which
implies that the normalized atmospheric suction has a value of unity, where s A is atmospheric suction. Z = zl is a
dimensionless vertical coordinate, and T = Kl 2t is a dimensionless time, where l is total thickness of sediment in
material coordinates. Substituting these variables into Eq. (1), we can obtain the normalized, dimensionless form as

∂S ∂2S
= . (2)
∂T ∂ Z2

3. Linear flow of heat conduction in the solid bounded by two sediment layers

In this section we examine various cases of linear flow of heat conduction in a solid bounded by a pair of sediment
layers, at z = 0 and z = l. The region refers to briefly as the ‘0 < z < l’. The results apply also to a rod of length l
with the same end conditions and with no loss of heat from its surface.

3.1. Ends kept at zero temperature with initial temperature f (z)

The heat conduction equation to be solved is

∂s ∂ 2s
= κ 2 , 0 < z < l, (3)
∂t ∂z
s(0, t) = s(l, t) = 0, (4)
s(z, 0) = f (z). (5)
 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931 1925

Now consider the function defined by the infinite series

∞
κn 2 π 2 t
 
X nπ z
s(z, t) = an sin exp − , (6)
n=1
l l2
where
2
Z l nπ z 0 0
an = f (z 0 ) sin dz . (7)
l 0 l
It is easy to show that the series obtained by term-by-term differentiation of (7) with respect to z and t are also
uniformly convergent in these intervals of z and t, respectively
∞
∂s κn 2 π 2 κn 2 π 2 t
 
X nπ z
=− a n sin exp −
∂t n=1
l2 l l2
and
∞
∂ 2s κn 2 π 2 κn 2 π 2 t
 
X nπ z
κ 2 =− an sin exp − ,
∂ z n=1
l2 l l2
when t > 0 and 0 < z < l. Thus the Eq. (3) is satisfied at all points of the rod by the function defined by (6) for t > 0.

3.2. Temperatures φ1 (t) and φ2 (t) at the ends and the initial temperature f (z)

In this case, we have the differential Eq. (3) and the initial condition (5), and
s(0, t) = φ1 (t), s(l, t) = φ2 (t). (8)
We put s = u + v, where u satisfies

∂u ∂ 2u
= κ 2 , 0 < z < l, (9)
∂t ∂z
u(0, t) = u(l, t) = 0, (10)
u(z, 0) = f (z) (11)
and v satisfies
∂v ∂ 2v
= κ 2 , 0 < z < l, (12)
∂t ∂z
v(0, t) = φ1 (t), v(l, t) = φ2 (t), (13)
v(z, 0) = 0. (14)
The solution u follows from Section 3.1, and is given by
∞
κn 2 π 2 t
Z l
nπ z 0 0

2X nπ z
u(z, t) = sin exp − f (z 0
) sin dz . (15)
l n=1 l l2 0 l
To obtain v, we may use the Duhamel’s theorem, where the solution for the surface temperature φ1 (t) and φ2 (t) is
derived from that for the surface temperature v1 and v2 . In this case the temperature at time t, when the temperature
through the stab at t = λ is zero and the ends are kept at φ1 (λ) and φ2 (λ) from t = λ to t = t, is given by
" #
∞
κn 2 π 2 (t − λ)

z 2X 1 nπ z
v(z, t) = φ1 (t) 1 − − sin exp −
l π n=1 n l l2
" #
∞
κn 2 π 2 (t − λ)

z 2X 1 nπ z
+φ2 (t) + cos(nπ ) sin exp − .
l π n=1 n l l2
1926 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931

Hence, when the surface temperatures are φ1 (t) and φ2 (t), we have
∂ ∂
Z t   z z
v(z, t) = φ1 (λ) F1 (z, t − λ) + φ2 (λ) F2 (z, t − λ) dλ + 1 − φ1 (t) + φ2 (t),
0 ∂t ∂t l l
where
∞
κn 2 π 2 (t − λ)
 
2X 1 nπ z
F1 (z, t − λ) = − sin exp − ,
π n=1 n l l2
∞
κn 2 π 2 (t − λ)
 
2X 1 nπ z
F2 (z, t − λ) = cos(nπ ) sin exp − .
π n=1 n l l2

Thus
∞
κn 2 π 2 t
 
2κπ X nπ z
v(z, t) = n sin exp −
l 2 n=1 l l2

κn π λ
Z t  2 2   z z
× exp 2
[φ 1 (λ) − (−1) n
φ2 (λ)]dλ + 1 − φ1 (t) + φ2 (t). (16)
0 l l l
Therefore we finally obtain
∞
κn 2 π 2 t
 Z l
nπ z 0 0

2X nπ z
s(z, t) = sin exp − f (z 0
) sin dz
l n=1 l l2 0 l

κnπ t κn π λ
Z  2 2   
z z
+ exp 2
(φ 1 (λ) − (−1) n
φ2 (λ))dλ + 1 − φ1 (t) + φ2 (t). (17)
l 0 l l l

4. Analytical solutions of normalized dimensionless governing equation

We consider the analytical solutions S(Z , T ) of time-dependent heat conduction Eq. (2) which are valid for
0 ≤ Z ≤ 1 and T > 0, where Z = zl , T = Kl 2t and S = ssA .In two sediment layers cases, it is assumed that
the lower layer is fully desiccated before the upper layer. In the following, we consider the normalized dimensionless
governing equation, Eq. (2) for four cases of initial, final and boundary conditions. It is assumed in all cases that whole
thickness of the fresh sediment is placed instantly, and s A is constant. A reasonable approximation for fine-grained
dredged sediments is about 10−6 m/s or less, if the period under consideration is relatively long.

4.1. Case (i): Sediment layer deposited on desiccated sediment layer on impermeable base

The initial, final, upper and lower boundary conditions to be applied are, respectively
S(Z , 0) = 1, 0 ≤ Z ≤ H,
S(Z , 0) = Se , H < Z ≤ 1, (18)
S(Z , ∞) = Se , 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1, (19)
S(0, T ) = Se , S(1, T ) = Se , T > 0. (20)
To solve this problem, it is convenient to subtract the (steady state) final condition (19) from the solution. The
transformation is given by
S = ST + Se . (21)
The transformed governing equation and its initial, final and upper and lower boundary conditions are, respectively

∂ ST ∂ 2 ST
= , (22)
∂T ∂ Z2
 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931 1927

Fig. 1. Variation with the uniform initial suction deposited on desiccated sediment layer on impermeable base, constant suction at surface, and H
equal to 0.4.

ST (Z , 0) = 1 − Se , 0 ≤ Z ≤ H,
ST (Z , 0) = 0, H < Z ≤ 1, (23)
ST (Z , ∞) = 0, 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1, (24)
ST (0, T ) = 0, ST (1, T ) = 0, T > 0. (25)
Eqs. (22), (24) and (25) are all satisfied by
∞
X
ST = an sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ). (26)
n=1

The Fourier coefficients an that satisfy Eq. (23) are given by

Z H
an = 2 (1 − Se ) sin(nπ Z 0 )dZ 0
0
2
= (1 − Se )(1 − cos(nπ H )). (27)
nπ
Applying the transformation (21) to Eq. (26) then gives the solution as
∞
2 X 1
S = Se + (1 − Se ) (1 − cos(nπ H )) sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ). (28)
π n=1
n

The dimensionless suction profiles corresponding to Eq. (28) for a H value of 0.4 are shown in Fig. 1.

4.2. Case (ii): Sediment layer deposited on impermeable base

The initial, final, upper and lower boundary conditions to be applied are, respectively
S(Z , 0) = 1, 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
S(Z , ∞) = Se , 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
S(0, T ) = Se , S(1, T ) = Se , T > 0.
In this case, the transformation is again given by Eq. (21). The transformed governing Eq. (22) and its initial, final,
upper and lower boundary conditions are, respectively
ST (Z , 0) = 1 − Se , 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
ST (Z , ∞) = 0, 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
1928 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931

Fig. 2. Variation with the uniform initial suction deposited impermeable base, with constant suction at surface.

ST (0, T ) = 0, ST (1, T ) = 0, T > 0.

The solution for the above problem is given by
∞
4(1 − Se ) X 1
ST = sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ). (29)
π n=1,3,5...
n

Applying the transformation (21) to Eq. (29) gives the solution

∞
4 X 1
S = Se + (1 − Se ) sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ), (30)
π n=1,3,5...
n

where the solution (30) also can be obtained by setting H to unity in Eq. (28). The dimensionless suction profiles
corresponding to Eq. (30) are shown in Fig. 2.

4.3. Case (iii): Sediment layer deposited on desiccated sediment layer with free drainage at base

The initial, final, upper and lower boundary conditions to be applied are, respectively
S(Z , 0) = 1, 0 ≤ Z ≤ H,
Se (1 − Z )
S(Z , 0) = , H < Z ≤ 1, (31)
1− H
S(Z , ∞) = Se (1 − Z ), 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1, (32)
S(0, T ) = Se , S(1, T ) = 0, T > 0. (33)
In this case, a useful transformation found to be
S = ST + Se (1 − Z ). (34)
The transformed governing equation (22) and its initial, final, upper and lower boundary conditions are, respectively
ST (Z , 0) = 1 − Se (1 − Z ), 0 ≤ Z ≤ H,
Se H (1 − Z )
ST (Z , 0) = , H < Z ≤ 1, (35)
1− H
ST (Z , ∞) = 0, 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1, (36)
ST (0, T ) = 0, ST (1, T ) = 0, T > 0. (37)
 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931 1929

Fig. 3. Variation with the uniform initial suction deposited on desiccated soil, constant suction at surface and H equal to 0.6.

Eqs. (22) and (35)–(37) are all satisfied by

∞
X
ST = an sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ). (38)
n=1

The Fourier coefficients an are given by

!
1 Se H (1 − Z 0 )
Z H Z
an = 2 (1 − Se (1 − Z )) sin(nπ Z )dZ +
0 0 0
sin(nπ Z 0 )dZ 0
0 H 1− H
2Se 2
= sin(nπ H ) + (1 − Se )(1 − cos(nπ H )). (39)
n π (1 −
2 2 H) nπ
Applying the transformation (34) to Eq. (38) gives the solution
∞ 
Se sin(nπ H ) (1 − Se )(1 − cos(nπ H ))
X 
S = Se (1 − Z ) + 2 2 π 2 (1 − H )
+ sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ). (40)
n=1
n nπ

The dimensionless suction profiles corresponding to Eq. (40) for a H value of 0.6 are shown in Fig. 3.

4.4. Case (iv): Sediment layer with free drainage at base

In this case, the initial, final, upper and lower boundary conditions to be applied are, respectively
S(Z , 0) = 1, 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
S(Z , ∞) = Se (1 − Z ), 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
S(0, T ) = Se , S(1, T ) = 0, T > 0.
The transformation is again given by Eq. (34). The transformed governing Eq. (22) and its initial, final, upper and
lower boundary conditions are, respectively
ST (Z , 0) = 1 − Se (1 − Z ), 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
ST (Z , ∞) = 0, 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1,
ST (0, T ) = 0, ST (1, T ) = 0, T > 0.
The solution is given by
∞
2X 1
ST = [1 − Se (1 − cos(nπ ))] sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ). (41)
π n=1 n
1930 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931

Fig. 4. Variation with the uniform initial suction, soil, constant suction at surface.

Applying the transformation (34) to Eq. (41), we have the solution

∞
2X 1
S = Se (1 − Z ) − [Se cos(nπ ) − (1 − Se )(1 − cos(nπ ))] sin(nπ Z ) exp(−n 2 π 2 T ), (42)
π n=1 n
where the solution (42) also can be obtained by setting H to unity in Eq. (40) via L’Hospital rule. The dimensionless
suction profiles corresponding to Eq. (42) are shown in Fig. 4.

5. Numerical simulation

We have presented the analytical solutions for time-dependent heat conduction equation of soil moisture in four
different conditions (see Eqs. (28), (30), (40) and (42)). Those are tested by comparing with the corresponding
numerical solutions.
Solving the normalized dimensionless governing Eq. (2) numerically, we use the Crank–Nicholson implicit scheme
[8,9]. To apply the finite difference method, we divide the spatial domain [0, 1] into M sections, each of length
∆Z = 1/M, and divide the time domain [0, 1] into N segments, each of duration ∆T = 1/N , and then replace
the first partial derivative on the left-hand side and the second partial derivative on the right-hand side of Eq. (2) by
the forward difference approximation at point k and the average of the central difference approximation at two points
k + 1 and k, respectively, so that we have
k+1 k+1 k+1
!
k − 2S k + S k
1 Si+1 − 2Si + Si−1 Si+1 i i−1 Sik+1 − Sik
+ = , (43)
2 ∆Z 2 ∆Z 2 ∆T
which leads to the Crank–Nicholson implicit scheme
k+1
− r Si+1 + 2(1 + r )Sik+1 − r Si−1
k+1 k
= r Si+1 + 2(1 − r )Sik + r Si−1
k
(44)

with r = ∆∆Zt 2 .
With the Dirichlet type of boundary conditions, Eq. (44) can be cast into tridiagonal system of equations which can
be solved efficiently. Thus, we can give the numerical solution of Eq. (2) for all the four cases.
The differences between the numerical and analytical solutions for case (i) are shown in Table 1, where K denotes
the numbers of terms taken from the series in the analytical solutions, and the numbers in the tables are the relative
errors between the numerical and analytical solutions.
As shown in this table, the truncation of the infinite series has little influence on the errors (less than 0.001%), but
the step size has more influence on the errors, if we take N = 500, all the relative errors between the analytical results
and numerical results are less than 0.02%, therefore negligible.
For the other three cases, the relative errors between numerical and analytical solutions with K = 200 are shown
in Table 2.
 X.-Y. Ge et al. / Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 10 (2009) 1923–1931 1931

Table 1
Relative errors (%) between numerical and analytical solutions for Case (i)

(M, N ) K
100 150 200 500 1000
(21, 100) 0.031466 0.031807 0.031518 0.031458 0.031453
(21, 500) 0.0018504 0.0017109 0.0016563 0.0016581 0.0016530
(41, 100) 0.036002 0.035600 0.035600 0.035603 0.035602
(41, 500) 0.0030208 0.0027179 0.0027153 0.0027167 0.0027164

Table 2
Relative errors (%) for Case (ii)–(iv)
(M, N ) Case (ii) Case (iii) Case (iv)
(21, 100) 0.023434 0.053126 0.08232
(21, 500) 0.0010202 0.016319 0.019895
(41, 100) 0.028492 0.043279 0.28
(41, 500) 0.001967 0.0083661 0.010257

6. Summary

Our study is mainly based on the fact that the flow of water in soils is better described by the soil moisture potential
in port, coastal and geotechnique engineering. For a long time, before our work, there are only analytical solutions for
special cases [6] or numerical results. In this work, we have presented the analytical solutions for time-dependent heat
conduction equation of soil moisture. Because the soil moisture suction rather than the moisture content is used as the
primary variable, our approach is considerably simpler than the earlier one [6], and it may address more complicated
cases. Concretely, the analytical solutions for time-dependent heat conduction equation with four different sediment
layers conditions bases have been obtained.

Acknowledgment

X.Y. Ge is supported by JSPS and partially supported by Hubei NSF of China.

References

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