Numerical Analysis of coupled liquid water, water vapor and heat transport in a sandy loam soil

Water vapor transport could be significant in arid areas such as southern New Mexico. Temporal soil moisture variations in unsaturated soils due to temperature gradients are characterized by the water vapor transport in the surface soil layer as liquid water movement could be very small especially when surface soil moisture is low. Numerical model Hydrus-1D was applied to investigate non-isothermal liquid and vapor flow closely coupled with the heat transport in a furrow-irrigated onion field located at Leyendecker Plant Science Research Center, Las Cruces. TDR and temperature sensors were installed to continuously monitor diurnal soil moisture and temperature variations in sandy loam onion beds at 5, 10, 20, and 50 cm depths during the entire growing season. Meteorological data were obtained from PSRC weather station. Hydrus-1D simulated soil moisture and temperature favorably contrasted against measured data at different depths. Simulations indicated that both liquid and vapor fluxes contributed to the water transport near surface. Liquid flux dominated the water movement during an irrigation event, while contribution of vapor flux increased with increasing soil drying. Vapor flux decreased from 5 cm to 25 cm depth, indicating that water vapor flux is much higher in the layer near soil surface. Both diffusive and dispersive transports are responsible for the vapor flux in the near-surface dry zone, while convective liquid flux was the main transport mechanism in the near-surface wet lower zone. In near-surface wet zone, diffusive flux decreased and changed from upward to downward flux.