Synchrotron Radiation for Detecting Movement of a Volatile Soil Liquid

Heat and volatile liquid transport in soils are physically coupled processes. Soil water movement driven by thermal gradients has received considerable attention both experimentally and via models. This is appropriate since the thermal regime of underground electric power cables, pipelines, agricultural soils, and nuclear-waste repositories influences their ability to function effectively. However, available experimental liquid concentration data are of relatively low resolution, generally about one measurement per cm. By using synchrotron x rays we were able to nondestructively obtain high (50 (mu)m) spatial resolution, timelapsed data for the thermally driven movement of dibromomethane (DBM) in soil. Under repeated temperature cycling during a 22 h period, DBM movement within a sealed, 25-mm-long quartz sand (D50 = 0.25 mm) soil column was highly repeatable. About four complete scans of the column were completed each hour. Average DBM vol % within the column as a whole was 4.0 and the porosity was 0.31. Measurements of DBM concentration at the same position and equivalent times during different cycles usually differed by less than 0.2 vol %. Experimental data of this precision will permit better comparison with detailed model predictions.