A Novel Generalized Clapeyron Equation-Based Model for Capturing the Soil Freezing Characteristics Curve of Saline Soil: Validation by Small Sample Lab and Field Experiments

Abstract

The soil freezing characteristic curve (SFCC) describes the relationship between the freezing point and unfrozen water content, which are two critical parameters in depicting the heat, solute, and water transport in frozen soil. In this paper, we propose a novel Generalized Clapeyron Equation (GCE)-based model, the GCE-Salt Model, to better capture the SFCC in frozen soil in the presence of solute. It keeps the matric potential Ψf in the GCE as its original meaning and incorporates the effect of solute potential in the equilibrium freezing temperature. The performance of our GCE-Salt Model was validated by both lab and field experimental data and compared with related models (Combined Model and GCE-Tan Model). The GCE-Salt Model performed exceptionally well in extremely saline soil and it performed well in both non-saline and saline soil. (1) Our GCE-Salt Model could capture the SFCC of non-saline soil equally as well as the Combined Model (NSE = 0.866); (2) our GCE-Salt Model performed similarly well as the Combined Model and a little better than the GCE-Tan Model for the slightly to highly saline soil (NSE ≥ 0.80 for three models); and (3) our GCE-Salt Model (NSE = 0.919) beat the Combined Model (NSE = 0.863) and the GCE-Tan Model (NSE = 0.62) in capturing the SFCC of extremely saline soil, mainly because the inherent expression of our GCE-Salt Model can more accurately capture the freezing point. Our findings highlight the effect of solute potential on the ice–water change and could improve the understanding of the effect of freezing and thawing on the thermal–hydrological processes, structure of saline soil, and landscape evolution in cold regions.