Moisture changes due to heat (including such as condensation) have been neglected in past studies of soil moisture transport phenomena. The effect usually limited to laboratory study, and none have ever considered its significance in the field condition. In fact, soil moisture is not constant during the day and whenever there is temperature gradient occurs between the layers, moisture is transported due to the gradient. This paper was aimed to study the in situ effect of heat on moisture movement in vapour and liquid phase in the soil, by assuming that Philip's equation could be extended to such a case. A series of experiments has been conducted at selected areas of the Hamaoka Sand Dunes in Shizuoka Prefecture to collect all data required by the equation. Antecedently to the analysis, a stationary cross section' difining the layer having constant moisture content was set up, and the amount of moisture moved (including both gaseous and liquid phase) across this layer was calculated to obtain the mass flux, while the rate of condensation at the ground surface was estimated by the diffusion equation (1). From the results obtained it was found that the volumetric moisture content near the ground surface increased by 1% during the night (
Fig. 2, Fig. 3). The types of moisture flux contributed to this increment arranged in thier order of magnitude, are:(1) Upward movement of liquid water due to moisture gradient, (
qθliq);(2) Upward movement of liquid water due to temperature gradient, (
qTliq);(3) Upward movement of gaseous water due to temperature gradient, (
qTvap);(4) Vapour condensation from the atomosphere to the ground surface, (
Q);(5) Upward movement of gaseous water due to moisture gradient, (
qθvap), (
Table 2).
Furthermore, it also clarified the fact that most of the condensation during the night was due to moisture transport rising from the lower layer. In computing the mass balance, the unknown quantity
K1-
K7, (hydraulic conductivity) was derived directly from the experiment. The value of the hydraulic conductivity was determined as
K=3×10
-5cm/sec at 7% volumetric moisture content, which lies well within the range of its possible value.
View full abstract