Climatic effects on the soil temperature and water content changes

Katia V. Bicalho, Gabriel P.D. Vivacqua, Celso Romanel, Yu-Jun Cui

In the proceedings of: GEO2011: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning of Geotechnical Engineering

Session: Geoenvironmental Engineering

ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes the results of a series of numerical analyses aiming to predict temperature, water content, and pore-water pressure changes due to climatic effects in a soil profile during a long term period by considering the soil atmosphere interface interactions. A soil-atmosphere interface model is used to calculate the evaporation rate and heat flux on the soil surface; the water transport equations (liquid - Dar- equation (de Vries 1963) are solved to determine the profiles of soil temperature, water content or pore water pressure. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to study how the variations of the soil albedo value (i.e., the ratio of reflected to incident solar radiation), the saturated hydraulic conductivity, and the initial temperature profiles (ITP) can influence water content, suction and temperature changes. It was considered the heterogeneous soil column consisted of two different soil layers in a total soil depth of 5 m. The results suggest that the variation of 5oC in ITP affects the temperature profiles but its influence on the suction and water content profiles is very small. During the cold season, precise albedo values are not very important nor very sensitive in influencing the water balance. The simulations show that climatic effects are limited to a shallow depth, which results from the low soil hydraulic conductivity. Calculated and direct measurements values of soil temperature profiles were compared and satisfactory results were obtained.

RÉSUMÉ: et de la température aux profils de température initiale (PTI). Le modèle sol-atmosphère est utilisé pour loi de Darcy et vapeur loi de Fur déterminer différents profils dans le sol. Les résultats suggèrent teneur en eau volumique est faible. Au cours de la saison froide, précise albédo valeurs ne sont pas très important ni très sensibles à influencer l'eau équilibre. Les simulations montrent que les effets climatiques sont limitées à une faible profondeur, qui résulte de la faible sol conductivité hydraulique. Calculé et des mesures directes valeurs de la température du sol profils ont été comparés et des résultats satisfaisants ont été obtenus.

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Cite this article:
Katia V. Bicalho; Gabriel P.D. Vivacqua; Celso Romanel; Yu-Jun Cui (2011) Climatic effects on the soil temperature and water content changes in GEO2011. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{GEO11Paper294,author = Katia V. Bicalho; Gabriel P.D. Vivacqua; Celso Romanel; Yu-Jun Cui ,title = Climatic effects on the soil temperature and water content changes,year = 2011}