Combined evaporation and salt precipitation in homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media

Abstract

While soil evaporation studies have typically focused on pure or low salinity water evaporation, higher salinity soil conditions are becoming more prevalent. This work explores the combined effect of matrix heterogeneity and salt precipitation on evaporation from soils. Long‐term evaporation processes were studied using sand columns, in which heterogeneity consisted of two layers with different grain sizes, and X‐ray computed tomography (CT) scanning to quantify salt deposition within pores. For saline solutions, three new stages of evaporation were defined: SS1, SS2, and SS3. SS1 exhibits a low and gradual decrease in evaporation rate because of increasing osmotic potential. During SS2, evaporation rate falls progressively because of salt‐crust formation. SS3 is characterized by a constant low evaporation rate. Even though phenomenologically similar to the well‐defined classical evaporation stages for pure water, these saline stages correspond to different mechanisms. It is shown that SS2 and SS3 take place while matrix water content can still support first‐stage evaporation. Salinity suppressed evaporation more strongly in homogeneous rather than in heterogeneous media. CT scans indicated preferential salt precipitation in the fine‐textured regions. Heterogeneous spatial distribution of salt precipitates within the media enabled vapor transport via large pores, while small pores were clogged with precipitated salts. A mathematical model was formulated that simulates evaporation for saline solutions from homogeneous and heterogeneous soils. The model was used to differentiate and quantify the mechanisms controlling each stage of the evaporation process.