HR: 1340h
AN: H33A-0452    [Abstracts]
TI: Characterizing air-water interfacial area in variably saturated porous media
AU: * Peng, S
EM: pengs@ag.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Soil,Water,and Environmental Science, 429 Shantz Building, #38 The University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721
AU: Brusseau, M L
EM: brusseau@ag.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Soil,Water,and Environmental Science, 429 Shantz Building, #38 The University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721
AU: Brusseau, M L
EM: brusseau@ag.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
AB: The air-water interface plays an important role in many mass and energy transfer processes in unsaturated soils. In this research, the gas-phase partitioning tracer method was used to measure air-water interfacial area as a function of water content for several porous media. The porous media comprised a series of sands with narrow particle-size ranges, a sand with a wider particle-size distribution, a sandy soil, and a loamy soil. The measurement range was extended to very low water contents in an attempt to determine maximum air-water interfacial areas. The measured values were compared to the normalized surface areas of the porous media. Experiment results showed that the magnitude of the air-water interfacial areas approached that of the normalized surface areas. Generally, air-water interfacial areas were higher for media with higher specific surface areas. The change in air-water interfacial area with changing water content was less near saturated water contents and greater at smaller values. In addition, the change was greater for poorly-sorted media. Measured air-water interfacial areas were compared to values estimated using various models.
DE: 1875 Unsaturated zone
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting