Interpreting the Drying Kinetics of a Soil Using a Macroscopic Thermodynamic Nonequilibrium of Water Between the Liquid and Vapor Phase

Abstract

Two preliminary experiments show that a nonequilibrium situation can be easily encountered during a natural drying process. This leads us to reconsider the thermodynamic local equilibrium assumption and propose a macroscopic two-equation model that takes into account mass exchange kinetics between the liquid and vapor phase. Numerical simulation of this theoretical model is then compared to experimental drying kinetics of soil columns. The discrepancies observed between the theoretical prediction and the experimental results are discussed. This contribution emphasizes the importance of such nonequilibrium phenomenon when modeling water transport in hygroscopic porous media.

Keywords:

• Drying kinetics
• Natural attenuation
• Nonequilibrium
• Phase change
• Porous media