Heat and vapor transfer

Abstract

Heat and water transfer in soils are governed by equations that correspond to heat and mass conservation. These soil physics equations deal with fluxes and storage of heat and mass (liquid water, water vapor) within soil. The theory has many useful applications, for example, soil temperature variations that affect crop production, water irrigation management, water vapor release to the atmosphere, ground heat exchange systems in commercial and housing areas, land surface modeling of surface temperature, fate and transfer of volatile organic compounds, and modeling of greenhouse gas emissions. The macroscopic scale mechanisms driving heat and mass fluxes described in this Chapter indicate the current knowledge used to interpret observations, and also expose the limitations of existing models. A pore-scale model is also briefly described which represents the fundamental mechanisms (microscopic scale) more precisely than the currently used representative elementary volume continuum models (macroscopic scale).