Physically based thermodynamic model of soil water retention curve for the entire moisture range

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Abstract

Quantitative description of the water retention curve (WRC) of soils remains one of the most pressing problems in soil hydrophysics due to the importance of WRC for computer modeling of the transport of soil moisture and dissolved substances and for the development of the thermodynamic concept of physical soil quality. The article presents a new model of WRC as a functional dependence of the thermodynamic potential (pressure) of soil water and its content in the entire possible range from conditionally zero to total water capacity in a state of water saturation. Unlike well-known empirical analogues, the model is based on fundamental physical mechanisms of water retention, combining the capillary effect and the Deryagin disjoining water pressure. Limitations by porosity (total water capacity), the maximum height of capillary rise and the standard thermodynamic potential of conditionally zero water content at a temperature of 105°C are used to justify the domain of determination of the WRC, its inflection point and for its scaling. The analytical expression of the new model in the form of a combination of exponential and hyperbolic functions with the argument of soil water content is easily differentiated and makes it possible to calculate the differential water capacity, variable interfacial surface and pore size distribution with a maximum at the inflect point of the field capacity, as well as estimate the specific surface area of the solid phase. Validation of the model using average statistical WRCs of the main genetic types and textural classes of Eurasian soils confirms its good agreement with experimental data with a more adequate description of WRC in the vicinity of conditionally zero soil water content compared to the standard empirical van Genuchten model with the same number of parameters. The fundamental basis of the new model and its good approximation ability for the entire range of WRC create the prospect of its diverse use for assessing the physical quality of soil and for process modeling of water transport, especially in finely dispersed and highly drained arid soils, where the approximation capabilities of the model exceed the known empirical analogues.

About the authors

A. V. Smagin

Lomonosov Moscow State University; Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: smagin@list.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3483-3372
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119991; Uspenskoe, 143030

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