International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 1122 – 1129

www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Experimental investigation on heat, moisture

and salt transfer in soil ☆
Yongping Chen ⁎, Mingheng Shi, Xiaochuan Li
Key LAB of Clean Coal Power Generation and Combustion Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment,
Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, P. R. China
Available online 13 July 2006

Abstract

In this paper, experiments on coupled heat, moisture and salt transfer in yellow vegetable soil are conducted. A remarkable
thermal permeant region in the soil column is found, along with moisture releasing, transition and absorbing zones in the soil
column. The capillary flow is the dominant mechanism that governs the moisture transfer. With the moisture transfer, the salt
moves from the groundwater and accumulates at the top of the column. However, with the salt accumulation, there will be a
gradient of salt content and, as a result, the salt will also diffuse due to this gradient.
© 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Heat and mass transfer; Soil; Porous media

1. Introduction

Following the pioneering work of Philip and de Vries [1], Luikov [2,3] and Cheng [4], the coupled heat and mass
transfer problems in porous media have been investigated by many scientists over the past 50 years. Both theoretical
and experimental investigations have been reported in the literature. Most recently, Thomas et al. [5] presented a three-
dimensional numerical model that coupled the heat, moisture and air transfer in unsaturated soils. In this solution,
highly non-linear hydraulic properties of sand were considered and the thermal conductivity was incorporated as a
function of the soil moisture content. The predicted and measured results correlated quite well.
Given the environmental safety issues and the progress made in understanding these processes, the investigation on
solute transfer in soil becomes more and more important. Nassar and Horton [6] reported on a detailed theory that
describes the simultaneous transfer of heat, water and solute in unsaturated porous media. In their analytical
investigation, the temperature, matrix pressure, solution osmotic pressure and solute concentration gradients were
considered as the driving forces, and the transport coefficients for heat, water and solute were incorporated into the
model.

☆
Communicated by P. Cheng and W.Q. Tao.
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 25 8379 4526(-8118).
E-mail address: ypchen@seu.edu.cn (Y. Chen).

0735-1933/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2006.06.013
 Y. Chen et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 1122–1129 1123

The transport of the soluble salts contained in compacted bentonite was studied in a hydration and heating
experiment by Martin et al. [7]. In this investigation, it was shown that the transport of salt was governed by the
convection and diffusion. The temperature was the variable that most influences the processes of transport, while the
concentration of the injected solution was of less significance.
The determination of the thermal conductivity and permeability is also very important for analyses of transport
phenomena in porous media. A theoretical formulation was developed by Shi and Chen [8] to describe the permeability
as a function of fractal dimensions and other scales for porous media.
However, there is still a lack of sufficient understanding of the mechanisms of heat and mass transfer in porous
media. In particular, experimental investigations on coupled salt, water and heat transfer in soil is very limited. These
experimental studies will be helpful in improving the theoretical understanding of the physics of this problem. The
objective of this paper is to experimentally investigate the heat and mass transfer in yellow soil using accurate
measurements and expand the theoretical knowledge of heat and mass transfer in porous media. The experimental data
will also be helpful for evaluating the numerical models.

2. Experimental setup and measurement

As shown in Fig. 1, the experimental setup was composed of a soil column, an air tunnel, an air temperature and
humidity control system, a radiation lamp, and a measurement and control apparatus.
The soil column was contained in a lucite tube(135 mm I.D. and 900 mm length) and was composed of two regions.
In the experimental specimen, yellow vegetable soil from Nanjing, China was placed in the column up to 300 mm from
the top. The average diameter of this yellow soil particle was 0.05 mm. From the position of −300 mm to −900 mm
was sand, with an average diameter of the sand particle of 0.3 mm. The outside of the lucite tube was insulated. A
number of sample holes were made in the tube for sampling and measurements and the groundwater level was held a
− 26 cm.
The air tunnel system included a fan, the air transmission pipe, temperature and humidity adjustments, and the entrance
and exit valves. The air velocity was adjusted in the range of 0.1–7 m/s by the entrance valve. Four groups of chromel
electric heaters to heat the air and the air temperature was regulated from room temperature to 80 °C by the three-phase
transformer (TSGC-15). The relative humidity of air was adjusted by an ultrasonic humidifier (YC-D181) from 30% to
80%. One infrared lamp adjusted by single phase transformer (TDGC-2) was placed above the soil column to simulate
solar radiation. The thermal density on soil surface was measured by radiation thermal current measurement. The soil

Fig. 1. Experimental setup.

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temperatures at −5 cm, −10 cm, −15 cm, −20 cm, −25 cm and −30 cm, respectively, were measured by a digital thermal
resistor probe fabricated by Soil Research Institute in Nanjing. The error of this probe is ±0.1 °C. Sampling points for the
measurement of moisture and salt content were at 0cm, −5 cm, −10 cm, −15 cm, −20 cm and −25 cm, respectively, and
the moisture content was measured by a dry weighing method. The error in this measurement was estimated to be less than
0.1%.
An ammonium salt (NH4)2SO4 solution was used in the experiments; therefore, the formaldehyde method was
adopted to measure the ammonium ion content. This method has been used extensively in industry due to its speed and
ease of operation. Since the acid character of NH4+ is too weak, Kα = 5.6 × 10− 10, it cannot be titrated directly by
standard NaOH solution. The formaldehyde reaction of (NH4)2SO4 to produce (CH2)6N4H+ (Kα = 7.1 × 10− 6) and H+
must be proceeded before titration:

4NHþ þ
4 þ 6HCHO→ðCH2 Þ6 N4 H þ 6H2 O þ 3H
þ
ð1Þ
Then, using standard NaOH solution to titrate (CH2)6N4H+ and H+, and using phenolphthalein as the indicator, the
NH4+ content could be easily measured. The uncertainty of this method was 3.67%.

3. Experimental results and discussion

The heat, moisture and salt transfer in the soil is not only influenced by external factors, i.e. atmospheric
temperature, air speed, sunlight intensity, moisture osmosis, etc., but is also affected by coupled interactions. The
mechanisms of this coupled transport process were investigated through the following three experiments.

3.1. Experiment 1 (hot air convection and radiation)

The first experiment was conducted using convection and radiation conditions. The radiation density was 180 W/m2,
the air temperature was 40 °C, the atmospheric temperature and humidity were 17 °C and 70%, respectively. Use the
(NH4)2SO4 solution (0.03 mol/l) as the groundwater. Fig. 2a, b and c illustrate the transient distribution of the
temperature, moisture content and salinity, respectively, in this operating mode.
As shown in Fig. 2a, there is a remarkable thermo-osmosis range in the soil column under the radiation and
convective heat transfer. Within 10 h, the average temperature of the region in 0 to − 15 cm increased 60%, whereas the
average temperature of the region under − 15 cm increased by 40%. The remarkable thermo-osmosis range of sand was
from 0 to −20 cm under the same conditions and was wider than that in loam. The first reason is the heat conductivity
of sand with the same moisture content is higher; the second is the hot capacity of sand is smaller than that of loam soil
in general. The temperature rising period of the soil column was 0–4 h. This was even more obvious in the portion from
0 to − 5 cm. In this region, the temperature increased within 0–4 h reached 90% of the total temperature increase in
10 h. Four hours later, since the temperature of soil surface was adjacent to air temperature, the temperature gradient
and thermal current were reduced drastically and the resulting heat transfer was weak. However, the temperature
gradient was still large in the region from − 20 to − 30 cm because of the heat conduction lag effects, and the
temperature of this part still increased continually.
As shown in Fig. 2b, there are three different moisture transfer regions in the soil column: moisture releasing,
transition and absorbing region. The transition region is from −10 to − 15 cm. The difference of the moisture at − 10 cm
point compared with the moisture at − 15 cm point is only 8% after 10 h. Compared with the sand column, there was not
a similar steady moisture flow region, in the contrast, the moisture content changed dramatically in sand. This was
mainly because the capillary pores in loam soil were smaller than that in sand, and the capillary flow was stronger in
loam soil than that in sand. The moisture could be carried from lower to upper continuously to supply the water loss by
evaporation, so there appeared to be a relatively stable moisture content region in the part of − 10 to − 15 cm of loam
soil column. In the water absorbing region, − 15 to − 25 cm, the moisture content rose with time, and the moisture
content of − 25 cm was adjacent to saturated point after 10 h. In this moisture absorbing region, the moisture transfer
speed in the capillary region was accelerated gradually. This is mainly because the enhancement of capillary force with
the increasing moisture content and the decrease of the viscosity of water with the increasing temperature. The moisture
releasing region existed from 0 to − 10 cm. In this region, the evaporation speed was larger than the water supply speed,
so the moisture content of this region was reduced. Especially, near the surface which dried out under the high heat flux
 Y. Chen et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 1122–1129 1125

Fig. 2. Transient distribution in Experiment 1: (a) temperature, (b) moisture content, (c) salt content.

and strong convection condition after the initial 2 h. The capillaries in the dry surface were ruptured and the evaporation
rate of 0 to − 10 cm after 4 h was much lower than the initial rate and was approximately at a steady-state value, which
was in the third evaporation stage [9]. This mechanism helps to prevent water loss.
As shown in Fig. 2c, because the salt content of the groundwater was lower than the initial salt content of the soil
column, there was a salt accumulating region and a salt releasing region corresponding to the water releasing region and
the water absorbing region. This phenomenon is consistent with theoretical predictions.
The moisture content in the layer near the groundwater level did not change dramatically and the content of
(NH4)2SO4 remained relatively steady. The salt content in the − 20 cm layer reduced with the increase of the moisture
content. However, the change of the salt content did not always correspond to the change in the moisture content. A salt
accumulating phenomenon can be observed clearly at the point of − 5 cm within the time from 0 to 4 h. After 4 h, it
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began to release. On the one hand, the salt was carried by the moisture transfer upwards; on the other hand, there also
existed salt diffusion under the salt content gradient. These two aspects caused the transport phenomenon as described
above. The salt content at z = 0 cm, began to decrease at 8 h, perhaps due to random measurement errors occurring at
this point. However, the overall trend of the surface clearly indicates a salt accumulation by 10 h.

3.2. Experiment 2 (room temperature air convection and radiation)

The second experimental operating mode is evaporation by air convection at room temperature and radiation. The
radiation heat flux is 180 W/m2, the air temperature is 16 °C, the air speed is 2 m/s and the atmospheric humidity is

Fig. 3. Transient distribution in Experiment 2: (a) temperature, (b) moisture content, (c) salt content.
 Y. Chen et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 1122–1129 1127

70%. Use 0.02 mol/l (NH4)2SO4 solution as the groundwater. Fig. 3a, b and c are the transient distribution of
temperature, moisture content and salt density, respectively.
Despite the fact that radiation heat transfer existed in Experiment 2, the air temperature were lower than those in
Experiment 1. In this mode, the soil was not only radiated, but also cooled by the cooling air convection on the soil
surface. So the actual thermal flux and the temperature increase were much smaller than those in Experiment 1. In
addition, with the increase of temperature, the soil surface convection heat transfer was enhanced gradually and the heat
loss increased.
The moisture distribution is shown in Fig. 3b. Since the heat flux and the temperature in this experiment were much
smaller than those of Experiment 1, the capillary flow was weaker and the water from the ground could not supply the

Fig. 4. Transient distribution in Experiment 3: (a) temperature, (b) moisture content, (c) salt content.
1128 Y. Chen et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 1122–1129

evaporation, the whole soil column demonstrates water releasing. In particular, the moisture content among −20 to −25 cm
became steady after 2 h. In contrast, for Experiment 1 whose average temperature was approximately 10 °C higher than the
temperature of Experiment 2, the moisture change rate at z = −20 cm after 2 h was approximately 0.012/h, whereas it is
nearly 0 in Experiment 2. From this experiment, it was shown that the heat flux and temperature distribution played a
significant role on the inner moisture transfer of the soil. In general, the high heat flux enhanced the capillary flow and
moisture transfer.
As shown in Fig. 3c, the salt density distribution also corresponds to the moisture transfer and shows obvious salt
accumulating on soil surface.

3.3. Experiment 3 (pure radiation)

The third experimental mode is evaporation by pure radiation heat transfer. The radiation density was still 180 W/m2,
the atmospheric temperature was 22.5 °C, the atmospheric humidity was 70%, and the groundwater was 0.1 mol/
l (NH4)2SO4 solution.
Fig. 4a shows the transient temperature distribution. Under this pure radiation condition, the increase of
temperature in the region among 0 to − 10 cm was much higher than that in Experiment 2. This was mainly because
there was no heat loss by air cooling. The remarkable temperature raising period of the soil column was still in 0–
4 h. Fig. 4b shows the moisture dynamic distribution. Since the surface temperature of this case was as high as
43 °C, the surface was dried in a short time and the moisture content was nearly 0 after 10 h. This dried surface layer
weakened the evaporation; hence, the moisture transfer speed was smaller. For example, in Experiment 1, the
change speed of moisture content at z = − 5 cm within 0–4 h was about 0.05/h, whereas it was 0.01/h in this
experiment. The absorbing region expanded to − 15 to − 25 cm. In fact, z = − 10 cm turned to be in the absorbing
region after 4 h.
Fig. 4c shows the salt density dynamic distribution, with the weak evaporation and small moisture transfer rate, the
salt transfer rate was also small. It can be seen that the salt content distribution of the region under − 5 cm has no great
changes in the whole experiment process. In this operating mode, the water releasing region was in the part of 0 to
− 5 cm, but the salt accumulating region was enlarged to 0 to − 15 cm. This was mainly because the initial salt content
rate at − 15 cm place was about half of those at − 10 cm and − 20 cm, there existed diffusion and disperse process of salt
from both up and down to − 15 cm layer.

4. Conclusion

In this paper, a systematic experimental study on heat and mass transfer in one dimension vegetable yellow soil
column is presented. The following conclusions can be drawn:

1. There is a remarkable thermo-osmosis range in the soil column; however, compared with sand, the loam soil thermal
permeation is weaker.
2. There are different moisture transfer zones: i.e., the moisture releasing, transition and absorbing in the loam soil
column. The vegetable yellow soil has been cultivated for long time; the capillary flow is very strong. Thus, the
groundwater can transfer to the top layer of the soil column fluently by the evaporation force. The heat flux and
temperature has great influence on the moisture transfer; a high heat flux will enhance the evaporation; however,
if the temperature is too high and the surface soil is dried in a short time, the capillary transfer is broken down
and third stage evaporation will occur [9]; it will prevent the inner moisture loss and decrease the moisture
transfer rate. And the influence of air convection is also very important; the evaporation rate under air convection
and radiation should be greater than that of pure high radiation despite the temperature of the latter may be
higher.
3. With the moisture transfer, the salt will be taken from the ground to the surface and accumulate. With the
accumulation, there will be a gradient of salt content. The salt will also diffuse under this gradient force.

This investigation, with above conclusions, will help us to understand the mechanisms of heat and mass transfer in
unsaturated soil. The experiment data obtained from this investigation will help to find the migration coefficients for
the theoretical models and evaluate the theoretical models.
 Y. Chen et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 1122–1129 1129

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Research Fund for Doctoral Program of High
Education, No. 20040286029, Outstanding Young Teacher Foundation at Southeast University, and the Scientific
Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, and the suggestions
provided by Professor G.P. Peterson and Professor P. Cheng.

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