Experimental study of the effect of shallow groundwater table on soil thermal properties

Jianmei JIANG, Lin ZHAO, Yijian ZENG, Zhe ZHAI

PDF(886 KB)
PDF(886 KB)
Front. Earth Sci. ›› 2016, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (1) : 29-37. DOI: 10.1007/s11707-015-0502-y
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Experimental study of the effect of shallow groundwater table on soil thermal properties

Author information +
History +

Abstract

In plains areas with semi-arid climates, shallow groundwater is one of the important factors affecting soil thermal properties. In this study, soil temperature and water content were measured when groundwater tables reached 10 cm, 30 cm, and 60 cm depths (Experiment I, II, and III) by using sensors embedded at depths of 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm for 5 days. Soil thermal properties were analyzed based on the experimental data using the simplified de Vries model. Results show that soil water content and temperature have fluctuations that coincide with the 24 h diurnal cycle, and the amplitude of these fluctuations decreased with the increase in groundwater table depth. The amplitude of soil water content at 5 cm depth decreased from 0.025 m3·m−3 in Experiment II to 0.01 m3·m−3 in Experiment III. Moreover, it should be noted that the soil temperature in Experiment III gradually went up with the lowest value increasing from 26.0°C to 28.8°C. By contrast, the trends were not evident in Experiments I and II. Results indicate that shallow groundwater has a “cooling” effect on soil in the capillary zone. In addition, calculated values of thermal conductivity and heat capacity declined with the increasing depth of the groundwater table, which is consistent with experimental results. The thermal conductivity was stable at a value of 2.3 W·cm−1·K−1 in Experiment I. The average values of thermal conductivity at different soil depths in Experiment II were 1.82 W·cm−1·K−1, 2.15 W·cm−1·K−1, and 2.21 W·cm−1·K−1, which were always higher than that in Experiment III.

Keywords

soil temperature / thermal property / groundwater table depth / evaporation

Cite this article

Download citation ▾
Jianmei JIANG, Lin ZHAO, Yijian ZENG, Zhe ZHAI. Experimental study of the effect of shallow groundwater table on soil thermal properties. Front. Earth Sci., 2016, 10(1): 29‒37 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-015-0502-y

References

[21]
Barry-Macaulay D, Bouazza A, Singh R M, Wang B, Ranjith P G (2013). Thermal conductivity of soils and rocks from the Melbourne (Australia) region. Eng Geol, 164: 131−138
CrossRef Google scholar
[1]
Bittelli M, Ventura F, Campbell G S, Snyder R L, Gallegati F, Pisa P R (2008). Coupling of heat, water vapor, and liquid water fluxes to compute evaporation in bare soils. J Hydrol (Amst), 362(3−4): 191−205
CrossRef Google scholar
[2]
Bristow K L, Kluitenberg G J, Goding C J, Fitzgerald T S (2001). A small multi-needle probe for measuring soil thermal properties, water content and electrical conductivity. Comput Electron Agric, 31(3): 265−280
CrossRef Google scholar
[3]
Carrera-Hernández J J, Smerdon B D, Mendoza A (2012). Estimating groundwater recharge through unsaturated flow modelling: sensitivity to boundary conditions and vertical discretization. J Hydrol (Amst), 452−453: 90−101
CrossRef Google scholar
[4]
Cass A, Campbell G S, Jones T L (1984). Enhancement of thermal water vapor diffusion in soil. Soil Sci Soc Am J, 48(1): 25−32
CrossRef Google scholar
[5]
Chung S O, Horton R (1987). Soil heat and water flow with a partial surface mulch. Water Resour Res, 23(12): 2175−2186
CrossRef Google scholar
[6]
Daw J E, Rempe J L, Knudson D L (2012). Hot wire needle probe for in-reactor thermal conductivity measurement. IEEE Sens J, 12(8): 2554−2560
CrossRef Google scholar
[7]
D<?Pub Caret?>e Vries D A (1958). Simultaneous transfer of heat and moisture in porous media. Trans Am Geophys Union, 39(5): 909−916
CrossRef Google scholar
[8]
De Vries D A (1963). The thermal properties of soils. In: van Wijk W R, ed. Physica of Plant Environment. Amsterdam: North-Holland Pub. Co, 210−235
[9]
Deb S K, Shukla M K, Sharma P, Mexal J G (2011). Coupled liquid water, water vapor, and heat transport simulations in an unsaturated zone of a sandy loam field. Soil Sci, 176(8): 387−398
CrossRef Google scholar
[10]
Fan Z S, Nefa J C, Harden J W, Zhang T J, Veldhuis H, Czimczik C I, Winston G C, O'Donnell J A (2011). Water and heat transport in boreal soils: implications for soil response to climate change. Science of the Total Environment, 409 (10): 1836−1842
[11]
Grifoll J, Gastó J M, Cohen Y (2005). Non-isothermal soil water transport and evaporation. Adv Water Resour, 28(11): 1254−1266
[12]
Heilman J L, McInnes K J, Gesch R W, Lascano R J, Savage M J (1996). Effects of trellising on the energy balance of a vineyard. Agr Forest Meteorol, 81(1−2): 79−97
CrossRef Google scholar
[13]
Kane D L, Hinkel K M, Goering D J, Hinzman L, Outcalt S I (2001). Non-conductive heat transfer associated with frozen soils. Global Planet Change, 29(3−4): 275−292
CrossRef Google scholar
[14]
Kang Y, Wang X, Wen J (2014). System for measuring soil thermal conductivity, has soil thermal flux sensor which is arraged between soil temperature sensor and soil moisture sensor that is embedded in soil at specific depth. The patentee: Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Patent numbers: CN203337585-U
[15]
Kanzari S, Hachicha M, Bouhlila R, Battle-Sales J (2012). Characterization and modeling of water movement and salts transfer in a semi-arid region of Tunisia (Bou Hajla, Kairouan)-Salinization risk of soils and aquifers. Comput Electron Agric, 86: 34−42
CrossRef Google scholar
[16]
Karl T R (1986). The relationship of soil moisture parameterizations to subsequent seasonal and monthly mean temperature in the United States. Mon Weather Rev, 114(4): 675−686
CrossRef Google scholar
[17]
Li C, Qi J, Feng Z, Yin R, Zou S, Zhang F (2010). Parameters optimization based on the combination of localization and auto-calibration of SWAT model in a small watershed in Chinese Loess Plateau. Front Earth Sci, 4(3): 296−310
CrossRef Google scholar
[18]
Lu S, Ren T (2009). Model for predicting soil thermal conductivity at various temperatures. Transactions of the CSAES, 25(7): 13−18(in Chinese)
[19]
Lu S, Ren T, Yu Z, Horton R (2011). A method to estimate the water vapour enhancement factor in soil. Eur J Soil Sci, 62(4): 498−504
CrossRef Google scholar
[20]
Lu Y L, Wang Y J, Ren T S (2013). Using late time data improves the Heat-Pulse method for estimating soil thermal properties with the pulsed infinite line source theory. Vadose Zone J, 12(4): 1−9
[22]
Nakhaei M, Šimunek J (2014). Parameter estimation of soil hydraulic and thermal property functions for unsaturated porous media using the HYDRUS-2D code. J hydrol hydromech, 62(1):7−15
[23]
Novak M D (2010). Dynamics of the near-surface evaporation zone and corresponding effects on the surface energy balance of a drying bare soil. Agric Meteorol, 150(10): 1358−1365
CrossRef Google scholar
[24]
Philip J R, de Vries D A (1957). Moisture movement in porous materials under temperature gradients. Trans Am Geophys Union, 38(2): 222−232
CrossRef Google scholar
[25]
Rahman A (2008). A GIS based DRASTIC model for assessing groundwater vulnerability in shallow aquifer in Aligarh, India. Appl Geogr, 28(1): 32−53
CrossRef Google scholar
[26]
Rose C W (1968). Water transport in soil with a daily temperature wave. I. Theory and experiment. Aust J Soil Res, 6(1): 31−44
CrossRef Google scholar
[27]
Rose D A, Konukcu F, Gowing J W (2005). Effect of watertable depth on evaporation and salt accumulation from saline groundwater. Aust J Soil Res, 43(5): 565−573
CrossRef Google scholar
[28]
Saito H, Šimunek J (2009). Effects of meteorological models on the solution of the surface energy balance and soil temperature variations in bare soils. J Hydrol (Amst), 373(3−4): 545−561
CrossRef Google scholar
[29]
Saito H, Šimunek J, Mohanty B P (2006). Numerical analysis of coupled water, vapor, and heat transport in the Vadose Zone. Vadose Zone J, 5(2): 784−800
CrossRef Google scholar
[30]
Shi W, Zeng W, Chen B (2010). Application of visual MODFLOW to assess the sewage plant accident pool leakage impact on groundwater in the Guanting Reservoir area of Beijing. Front Earth Sci, 4(3): 320−325
CrossRef Google scholar
[31]
Šimunek J, Sejna M, van Genuchten M Th (1998). The HYDRUS-1D software packa- ge for simulating the one dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably-saturated media. Version 2.0. IGWMC-TPS-70. Int. Ground Water Modeling Center, Colorado School of Mines, Golden
[32]
Umali D L (1993). Irrigation-Induced Salinity: a Growing Problem for Development and the Environment. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 22−28
[33]
Usowicz B, Lipiec J, Usowicz J B, Marczewski W (2013). Effects of aggregate size on soil thermal conductivity: comparison of measured and model-predicted data. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 57(2): 536−541
CrossRef Google scholar
[34]
Van Genuchten M Th (1980). A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J, 44(5): 892−898
CrossRef Google scholar
[35]
Waite W F, Gilbert L Y, Winters W J, Mason D H (2006). Estimating thermal diffusivity and specific heat from needle probe thermal conductivity data. Rev Sci Instrum, 77(4): 044904−044904-5
CrossRef Google scholar
[36]
Wang K, Xu X, Gao Q (2010). Hydraulic redistribution in the Inner Mongolia Huangfuchuan basins under different climate scenarios. Front Earth Sci, 4(3): 269−276
CrossRef Google scholar
[37]
Yang C B, Sakai M, Jones S B (2013). Inverse method for simultaneous etermination of soil water flux density and thermal properties with a penta-needle heat pulse probe. Water Resour Res, 49(9): 5851−5864
CrossRef Google scholar
[38]
Zeng Y (2011). Coupled water-vapor-heat transport in the unsaturated soil and its numerical simulation. Beijing: China University of Geosciences, 14−18(in Chinese)
[39]
Zeng Y, Su Z, Wan L, Wen J (2011b). A simulation analysis of the advective effect on evaporation using a two-phase heat and mass flow model. Water Resour Res, 47(10): 529−547
CrossRef Google scholar
[40]
Zeng Y, Wan L, Su Z, Saito H, Huang K, Wang X (2009). Diurnal soil water dynamics in the shallow vadose zone (field site of China University of Geosciences, China). Environ Geol (Environ Geol), 58(1): 11−23
CrossRef Google scholar
[41]
Zeng Y, SuZ, Wan L, Wen J (2011a). Numerical analysis of air-water-heat flow in unsaturated soil: is it necessary to consider airflow in land surface models? J Geophys Res, 116(D20): 107−125
CrossRef Google scholar

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank National Key Technology R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China (No. 2012BAC07B02), for their support and for providing the funds to make this study possible.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
AI Summary AI Mindmap
PDF(886 KB)

Accesses

Citations

Detail

Sections
Recommended

/