Study of heat and moisture transfer in soil with a dry surface layer

Mathematical model for describing simultaneous heat and moisture transfer in the porous soil with a dry surface layer was developed by using the volume-averaging method. Numerical simulation was conducted to investigate water evaporation, transient distributions of temperature and moisture in the porous soil at environmental conditions, which might be useful for agricultural application. In order to validate the mathematical model and numerical method, an experiment was conducted under natural environmental conditions. An additional experiment was conducted in a closed-loop wind tunnel to investigate the temperature effect on soil moisture transport. Theoretical and experimental results indicate that the dry surface layer has an important effect on heat and moisture migration in soil and the influence of temperature on moisture transport in unsaturated soil is significant.