Pore Network Simulation and Experimental Investigation on Water-Heat Transport Process of Soil Porous Media

Abstract

The research on water-heat transport of soil porous media has important theoretical and practical significance for the problem of agricultural production and environmental governance. In this work, the water-heat transport characteristics of sandy soil porous media are analyzed. The two-dimensional continuum physical model is constructed by continuum method, and the two-dimensional pore network physical model is constructed directly at pore scale by taking into account the complicated pore and skeleton structures of soil. Mathematical models of water-heat transport process of sandy soil are constructed based on heat-mass transfer mechanism. Mathematical models of the continuum method and pore network method are solved by ANSYS and self-designed solving algorithm, respectively. The numerical simulation results of soil temperature distributions and moisture distributions are in good agreement with the experimental results. The pore network simulation results are in good agreement with the measured data and are superior to the existing continuous scale method. The pore network simulation results can directly present the characteristics of the preferential flow and wetting front during the water-heat transport process of soil.