Soil Science Society of America Journal 67:703-712 (2003)
© 2003 Soil Science Society of America
DIVISION S-1SOIL PHYSICS
Hydrodynamic Dispersion in an Unsaturated Dune Sand
Nobuo Toride*,a,
Mitsuhiro Inoueb and
Feike J. Leijc
a Dep. of Agricultural Sciences, Saga Univ., Saga 840-8502, Japan
b Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, Hamasaka 1390, Tottori 680-0001, Japan
c George E. Brown Jr. Salinity Laboratory, 450 West Big Springs Road, Riverside, CA 92507
* Corresponding author (nobuo{at}cc.saga-u.ac.jp)
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ABSTRACT
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Solutes spread relative to the mean displacement position during water flow in soils as a result of meandering through the (partially) saturated pore complex. Spreading is characterized by the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient in the convection-dispersion equation (CDE). This coefficient has been extensively studied for saturated soils. In this study hydrodynamic dispersion coefficients for nonaggregated dune sand were determined as a function of volumetric water contents,
, ranging from saturation to 0.08 cm3cm-3 in columns of 5-cm diam. and 25- to 40-cm length. Unit-gradient flow experiments were conducted to measure solute breakthrough curves (BTCs) using four-electrode salinity probes at several column depths. Transport parameters for the CDE and the mobile-immobile model (MIM) were determined by optimizing analytical solutions to observed BTCs. A maximum dispersivity,
, of 0.97 cm was found at
= 0.13, whereas for saturated flow
0.1 cm irrespective of pore-water velocity ranging from 208 to 5878 cm d-1. For the MIM, the mobile water fraction,
m/
, gradually deceased from almost unity at saturation to a minimum of 0.85 at
= 0.15 followed by a slight increase with further desaturation. The exchange time between the mobile and immobile phases, 1/
, was 0.1 to 0.2 d for
> 0.15 presumably because of the relatively homogeneous flow with convective solute mixing. For lower
, the exchange became much slower since flow predominantly occurs in water films enveloping sand particles. The Peclet number for molecular diffusion, Pe, decreases as the role of transverse diffusion increases at lower
because of smaller v and thinner water films while the resistance increases for solute exchange between mobile and immobile phases. These combined effects lead to a maximum dispersivity value at intermediate water contents in the case of the nonaggregated dune sand.
Abbreviations: BTC, breakthrough curve CDE, convective-dispersive equation MIM, mobile-immobile model
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INTRODUCTION
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DURING WATER FLOW in porous media, dissolved substances tend to spread because of hydrodynamic dispersion, which includes molecular diffusion and mechanical dispersion (Bear, 1972). Mechanical dispersion occurs because water flow varies in magnitude and direction in soil pores as a result of meandering through the complex pore structure (Perfect and Sukop, 2001). The degree of spreading is related to the distribution of the water velocity at the pore scale, the degree of solute mixing because of convergence and divergence of flow paths, and (transverse) molecular diffusion (Bolt, 1979; Leij and van Genuchten, 2002).
Frequently, the solute flux because of mechanical dispersion is described as a Fickian process. The convenient similarity between diffusion and mechanical dispersion has led to the common practice of combining these processes into a single process of hydrodynamic dispersion (Leij and van Genuchten, 2002). This practice deserves careful scrutiny because mathematical equivalence does not necessarily imply physical similarity. The solute flux, JS (ML-2T-1), may be defined as the following sum of convective and hydrodynamic dispersive fluxes:
 | [1] |
where c is volume-averaged or resident concentration (ML-3), z is position or depth (L), D is the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient (L2T-1),
is the volumetric water content (L3 L-3), and Jw is the Darcy water flux (LT-1).
In saturated soils, the dispersion coefficient is given by (Bear, 1972):
 | [2] |
where the first term, De, is an effective diffusion coefficient (L2T-1) while the second term describes the coefficient of mechanical dispersion, where
is referred to as the dispersivity, v (= Jw/
) denotes the pore-water velocity (LT-1), and n is an empirical constant.
The role of molecular diffusion can be evaluated with the Peclet number of molecular diffusion,
 | [3] |
where d is the mean soil particle size or some other characteristic length of porous medium (Kutílek and Nielsen, 1994). The molecular diffusion term in Eq. [2] is of the same order of magnitude as for the mechanical dispersion term for 0.3 < Pe < 5. As Pe increases (5 < Pe < 20), the contribution of diffusion to hydrodynamic dispersion becomes negligible but transverse diffusion, which is inversely related to mechanical dispersion in the concept of Taylor dispersion (Taylor, 1953), should be considered. Typical values for n are in the range between 1 and 1.2 (Bear, 1972). At higher Pe, the dispersion coefficient, D, exhibits an almost linear increase with pore-water velocity, v (i.e., n = 1) in the case of nonaggregated sands or glass beads (Bear, 1972; Bolt, 1979). The dispersivity,
(= D/v), is assumed to be an intrinsic soil property for saturated flow.
Hydrodynamic dispersion in unsaturated soils is more complicated than in saturated soils. As water content decreases, the pore-water velocity decreases and the geometry of the liquid phase in water-conducting pores changes with less opportunity for mixing and increased tortuosity. The dispersion coefficient will depend on both water content and velocity, which may be expressed similar to Eq. [3]:
 | [4] |
In the case of nonaggregated media such as glass beads and sands, greater solute spreading and longer tailing have been observed for BTCs at lower water contents (Gupta et al., 1973; Krupp and Elrick, 1968). Hence, larger values for
(= D/v) have been found for unsaturated than for saturated conditions (De Smedt and Wierenga, 1984; Maraqa et al., 1997; Matsubayashi et al., 1997; Padilla et al., 1999). De Smedt and Wierenga (1984) explained greater dispersion in unsaturated glass beads with the MIM. These authors found that the mobile water content,
m, increased linearly with the total water content (
m/
= 0.853), while the coefficient for mass transfer between the mobile and immobile phases,
, increased proportionally with the pore-water velocity, v. Maraqa et al. (1997) found greater dispersivity for unsaturated sandy soils, but they did not observe tailing of the BTCs. Padilla et al. (1999) demonstrated that for an unsaturated sand the parameters of the CDE and MIM are not only a function of soil properties but also of water content. Matsubayashi et al. (1997) evaluated the mixing length for the unsaturated dispersion based on the standard deviation of v for different
using the capillary retention model.
Despite the aforementioned and other studies, there is a lack of consistent and comprehensive data sets to elucidate unsaturated dispersion. The difficulty to establish uniform unsaturated flow conditions may result in inaccurate estimations of transport parameters. Few data exist for lower water contents because the concomitant low flow rates lead to time-consuming displacement experiments. In most studies effluent concentrations were used to determine BTCs. Apparatus-induced dispersion may result in biased transport parameters (James and Rubin, 1972) while a single BTC for an experiment provides an insufficient basis to assess the transport model.
The main objective of this study is to examine dispersion over a wide range of water contents under unit-gradient flow conditions in a dune sand. For this purpose, we determined in situ BTCs by inferring total resident concentrations from the bulk soil electrical conductivity measured with four-electrode salinity probes at several depths in columns packed with a Tottori dune sand. Values for parameters of CDE and MIM were determined by optimizing analytical solutions of these transport models to the observed BTCs. Solute mixing in the unsaturated sand will be discussed in terms of the behavior of dispersivity as a function of water content.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
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Displacement Experiment
A well-sorted dune sand from Tottori, Japan, was packed uniformly at a dry bulk density,
b = 1.67 g cm-3 in columns of 5-cm diam. and 25- to 40-cm length. The dune sand had an average particle size of 0.28 mm, and 95% of the sand consisted of particles with a diameter between 0.149 to 0.5 mm. To minimize filter clogging during the displacement experiments, we reduced fine particles (<0.02 mm) in the sand from 2.5 to 1% by washing the sand with distilled water. The saturated hydraulic conductivity was 550 cm d-1. Figure 1
shows the water retention curve,
(h), measured with a hanging water column starting at saturation. From the curve it is evident that the sand has a low air-entry value and a narrow range in pore sizes.
Steady-state saturated and unsaturated flow conditions were established using CaCl2 solutions. Figure 2
shows the experimental setup for the displacement experiments. Unit-gradient flow was established for unsaturated conditions using a hanging water column. The soil column was first saturated from the bottom using a Mariotte bottle. Flow rates Jw ranging from 4 to 452 cm d-1 were then obtained by applying water to the soil surface covered by filter paper from a needle connected to a peristaltic pump using a Mariotte-type supply bottle for the influent solution. We confirmed that water flow was fairly homogeneous across the sample for the top 2 to 3 cm of the soil by using a dye solution.
A fritted glass filter of 5 mm thickness was used at the bottom of the soil to control the matric head. Depending on the flow rate, we selected a filter with a saturated conductivity of either 12, 25, or 50 cm d-1 and a corresponding air entry head of -200, -150, and -70 cm to minimize the pressure drop across the bottom filter. The pressure head was regulated by adjusting the position of the drip point of the hanging water column. Since it was difficult to accurately predict the pressure drop across the filter because of possible clogging, we determined the applied suction from the tensiometer reading above the filter. To minimize hysteresis effects, we gradually decreased the bottom pressure head to achieve unit-gradient flow.
A similar soil column was used for saturated flow. A fine-mesh screen was used at the bottom instead of the glass filter. After saturating the soil column from the bottom, constant saturated flow rates, ranging from Jw = 73 to 2059 cm d-1, were established by adjusting the hydraulic head at the top of the column using a Mariotte bottle.
The soil electrical conductivity, ECa, was measured with four-probe salinity sensors inserted horizontally in the column at three to five depths (Rhoades and Oster, 1986; Inoue et al., 2000). Each probe consists of four stainless steel rods with a 1.6-mm diam. and a 20-mm length. The two inner and two outer rods were spaced at 8 and 16 mm, respectively. The ratio of the electric current flowing through the outer electrodes to the voltage difference between the two inner electrodes was measured using a 21 X data logger with a multiplexer (Campbell Scientific Inc., Logan, UT). The soil water pressure head, h, was monitored with 2-mm diam. and 10-mm long microtensiometers connected to pressure transducers (Fig. 2). After establishing steady-state flow, the influent solution was changed from concentration c0 to c1 to allow determination of the BTCs. To minimize concentration effects on water flow, the difference between c0 and c1 was relatively small (c0 = 0.04 or 0.05 M CaCl2 and c1 = 0.05 or 0.07 M CaCl2) while still allowing accurate BTC measurements with the four-probe electrodes. We used slightly higher concentrations for lower water contents (c0 = 0.1 M CaCl2) when the four-probe readings tend to be lower (Inoue et al., 2000).
Four-probe ECa readings are proportional to the electrical conductivity of the soil solution, ECw, at a particular water content (Rhoades et al., 1989). Since a linear relationship is generally observed between the resident solute concentration of soil water, c, and ECw, c is also proportional to ECa as long as
is constant:
 | [5] |
where A and B are constants, and t is time (T). When continuous step input (switch from c0 and c1) is applied, the two constants of Eq. [5] can be determined by two sets of c and ECa values corresponding to c0 and c1. If the duration time, t0, of a pulse application (from c0 and c1, and then back to c0) is not long enough to reach a constant ECa value corresponding to c1, we assume full mass recovery to determine the constants, that is, the four-probe at depth z detects all the input solute mass to determine the constants (Mallants et al., 1996).
Transport Models
The observed BTCs were analyzed in terms of the conventional CDE and the MIM. We assumed that the four-probe measurements yielded resident-type concentrations. The one-dimensional CDE based on the convective-dispersive flux of Eq. [1] for a nonreactive solute in a homogeneous soil is written as (Kutílek and Nielsen, 1994):
 | [6] |
The MIM assumes that the liquid phase in soil pores can be partitioned into mobile (flowing) and immobile (stagnant) regions;
=
m +
im. Solute exchange between the two regions is modeled as a first-order process. The one-dimensional MIM for a nonreactive solute is described as (Coats and Smith, 1964; van Genuchten and Wierenga, 1977):
 | [7] |
 | [8] |
where the subscripts m and im refer to the mobile and immobile regions, respectively, vm
m is equal to the volumetric water flux density Jw (= v
), and
is a first-order mass transfer coefficient (T-1) governing the rate of solute exchange between the mobile and immobile regions.
The four-probe sensor presumably measures a total resident concentration, cT, defined as
 | [9] |
Values for transport parameters were determined with the nonlinear least-squares optimization program CXTFIT2.1 (Toride et al., 1995) using analytical solutions of CDE and MIM subject to the following initial and boundary conditions:
 | [10] |
 | [11] |
 | [12] |
where L is the column length (L), D is equal to Dm
m/
for the MIM, and to is the duration of the pulse application (T) with t < to effectively representing a step application. The use of an infinite outlet condition for a finite soil column is reasonable as long as processes beyond z = L have a negligible effect on the soil concentration at the point of measurement (van Genuchten and Parker, 1984).
If we adopt the common practice of setting n equal to 1 and neglecting the diffusion term in Eq. [2] and [4], the dispersivity can be defined for the CDE as
 | [13] |
The dispersivity can be regarded as a dispersion or mixing length, which is influenced by the microscopic velocity distribution and the opportunity for mixing of solute in different soil pores (Bolt, 1979). The effective overall dispersion coefficient for the MIM, DMIM, may be defined as (De Smedt and Wierenga, 1984; Parker and Valocchi, 1986):
 | [14] |
The first term on the right-hand side of Eq. [14] represents the contribution from dispersion in the mobile phase. The second term is proportional to v2 and includes the contribution of transverse diffusion to solute mixing (Bear, 1972; Bolt, 1979). For sufficiently long travel times, transport may be determined by the CDE using DMIM according to Eq. [14] (Leij and Toride, 1998; Valocchi, 1985). The effective dispersivity in terms of the MIM,
MIM, may be defined similar to Eq. [15]:
 | [15] |
where
m is the dispersivity in the mobile phase (= Dm/vm) and the second term is an "immobile" dispersivity or mixing length. When solute mixing between the mobile and immobile phases is the dominant mechanism for dispersion, in other words, transverse diffusion is dominant compared to mechanical dispersion, the dispersivity may increase with the pore-water velocity because of the second term in Eq. [15] (Nielsen et al., 1986).
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
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Unsaturated Water Flow
Since hydrodynamic dispersion in an unsaturated soil is a function of
and v, it is imperative to establish unit-gradient flow to achieve uniform water content throughout the column during the experiments (Maraqa et al., 1997). Figure 3
presents the distribution of
and h as a function of depth for one of the experiments using a water flux of 20.2 cm d-1 and an imposed head (suction) of around -40 cm at the bottom. The water contents were determined gravimetrically afterwards. Values for
and h were approximately 0.1 cm3 cm-3 and -30 cm, respectively, throughout the column, which corresponds to the water retention curve shown in Fig. 1.

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Fig. 3. Illustration of volumetric water content, , and soil water pressure, h, profiles during unit-gradient flow.
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Water contents and pressure heads near the bottom sometimes increased because of clogging of the bottom filter. Another potential problem is hysteresis. As can be imagined from the steep gradient in the drying branch of the water retention curve (Fig. 1), the dune sand was highly hysteretic. Even a small increase in the bottom pressure because of upward movement of the drip point of the hanging water column (Fig. 2) would result in (hysteretic) wetting. A rapid decrease in the bottom pressure may also lead to redistribution and wetting near the bottom. To minimize hysteresis effects, we started with a newly packed and saturated soil column for each displacement experiment. We measured water contents by sectioning the soil column after each experiment (Fig. 3). In addition to monitoring h, the four-probe ECa readings could be used to monitor
provided that ECw of the solution was kept constant.
Figure 4
summarizes the v
relationship for all experiments in this study. Note that the water flux, Jw, given by
v in Fig. 4 is equal to the unsaturated conductivity because of the unit-gradient flow condition. The water content, as determined by sectioning the soil column, was not perfectly uniform (Fig. 3). Therefore we used the fitted v to infer an average water content for each flow condition based on
= Jw/v for the CDE and
= Jw/(vm
m/
) for the MIM.

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Fig. 4. Volumetric water content, , as a function of log-scale unsaturated pore-water velocity, v, during unit-gradient flow.
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Breakthrough Curves and Parameter Estimation
After establishing a unit-gradient flow condition, we applied a step or pulse input of solute. Figure 5
shows examples of measured BTCs, in terms of dimensionless concentration versus time at different depths, for: (a) saturated (
= 0.34) and (b) unsaturated flow (
= 0.11) conditions. The water content profile presented in Fig. 3 was obtained gravimetrically after measuring the BTCs shown in Fig. 5b.
We fitted analytical solutions of the CDE and MIM to the observed BTCs to determine D and v for the CDE, and Dm, vm,
m/
, and
for the MIM (Toride et al., 1995). The mean solute travel time as quantified by the change in the total CaCl2 concentration for a BTC at a certain depth, z, was almost equal to the mean time calculated from the imposed Jw and gravimetrically determined
. Hence we assumed that we can use the EC measurements to determine total resident concentrations and that the retardation factor may be set equal to unity. Table 1 summarizes the CDE and MIM parameter values obtained from the BTCs shown in Fig. 5. We estimated parameters using the BTC at each depth as well as using BTCs for all depths. Figure 5 also shows the fitted BTCs as predicted from the CDE and MIM using the parameters listed in Table 1 obtained by including BTCs for all three or four positions in the optimization. Table 1 also presents the goodness of fit described with the coefficient of determination, r2, for the regression of observed versus fitted concentrations. Both CDE and MIM describe the BTCs quite well. Furthermore, since transport parameters that are obtained from BTCs at different depths are similar, we can have some confidence in the validity of our transport models. The possibility of comparing parameters obtained at different depths is an obvious advantage of determining the BTC from in situ EC measurements rather than from effluent samples.
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Table 1. Convective-dispersive equation (CDE) and mobile-immobile model (MIM) parameter values obtained from the breakthrough curves (BTCs) for saturated and unsaturated flow conditions shown in Fig. 5. Parameters are estimated from the BTC at each depth and from all BTCs simultanelously.
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The BTCs for unsaturated flow tend to be less symmetrical with considerable tailing compared with the BTCs for saturated flow, this was already observed by Gupta et al. (1973), Krupp and Elrick (1968). As can be seen from r2 in Table 1, the CDE describes the observed data better for saturated than for unsaturated conditions.
Table 2 provides CDE and MIM parameters for 11 unsaturated experiments obtained from BTCs at center locations along the column. BTCs obtained near the surface (z < 5 cm) may be affected by the more heterogeneous flow conditions because water entered at the center of the soil surface, while BTCs near the bottom are affected by irregular water contents because of possible clogging of the filter. We therefore determined parameter values by simultaneously fitting the solution of the CDE or MIM to the BTCs for all or part of the center locations. Data for Exp. 5 in Table 2, for example, were obtained from BTCs at depths 9.0, 15.1, and 21.1 cm (Table 1).
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Table 2. Convective-dispersive equation (CDE) and mobile-immobile model (MIM) parameters obtained from breakthrough curves in the middle of the column for unsaturated flow in a Tottori dune sand.
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Hydrodynamic Dispersion
Convective-Dispersive Equation
We plotted the dispersivity,
, in terms of the CDE (D/v), as a function of pore-water velocity (logarithmic scale) in Fig. 6 and of volumetric water content in Fig. 7
for saturated and unsaturated conditions. Figure 7 also includes the results from Table 2 of Padilla et al. (1999) for an unsaturated sand with an average particle size of 0.25 mm, similar to the Tottori dune sand. In the case of saturated flow, the dispersivity is around 0.1 cm regardless of the flow rate, v (208
v
5878 cm d-1). In other words, D increases linearly with v as has been widely reported (Bear, 1972; Bolt, 1979).

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Fig. 6. Dispersivity, , as a function of log-scaled pore-water velocity, v, for saturated and unsaturated flow conditions.
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For unsaturated flow, on the other hand,
depends on both v and
. Dispersivity increased as v decreased (Fig. 6). Of course, v and
are interdependent because of the unit-gradient condition with v = K(
) where K is the hydraulic conductivity. As can be seen in Fig. 4, v may change considerably even at almost the same
because the hydraulic conductivity can vary several orders of magnitude over a narrow range of
. The value for
may affect
even more strongly than v (Fig. 7). The maximum for
was 0.97 cm at
= 0.13, almost ten times greater than for saturated flow. For lower
,
decreased with
. Although the minimum water content in the study by Padilla et al. (1999) was
= 0.15, their results for
> 0.16 agree with ours.
Mobile-Immobile Model
The MIM was applied to describe BTCs for both saturated and unsaturated conditions. Because transport in the saturated sand was described well by the CDE, the mobile fraction,
m/
, is close to unity (Table 1). Padilla et al. (1999) observed the same for a saturated sand (
m/
= 0.99). Under these conditions, the transfer coefficient,
, is no longer relevant and estimates for this value are unstable (Comegna et al., 2001). Since the estimated values are not accurate and the BTC may not be properly evaluated with the analytical solution of the MIM (Maraqa, 2001; Toride et al., 1995), we will not further pursue the description of BTCs in terms of the MIM for saturated conditions.
For unsaturated conditions, the estimated
m/
and
values appear reasonable for all cases shown in Tables 1 and 2. In Fig. 8
, we compare the effective dispersivity for the MIM,
MIM, calculated from estimated MIM parameters according to Eq. [15], with
for the CDE. Although
MIM was slightly greater for lower water contents, the similarity of the two dispersivities suggests that it is reasonable to partition hydrodynamic dispersion into the two mechanisms of solute mixing defined by Eq. [16] and [17] using the MIM parameters. Figure 8 also includes the dispersivity of the mobile phase,
m (= Dm/vm), for unsaturated conditions. For
< 0.17,
m was around 0.2 to 0.3 cm and between 0.1 to 0.15 cm for
> 0.17. The difference between
MIM (or
) and
m, that is, the immobile mixing length, can be regarded as the contribution to mixing because of transverse diffusion between mobile and immobile phases. The greater difference for
< 0.17 suggests that the second term in Eq. [15] becomes the dominant mechanism for mixing during unsaturated conditions.
Figure 9
presents the mobile and immobile fraction,
m/
and
im/
, as a function of
. De Smedt and Wierenga (1984) proposed a constant value for
m/
of 0.853 based on their own measurements on unsaturated glass beads as well as based on results by Krupp and Elrick (1968). In the case of the Tottori dune sand,
m/
had the same order of magnitude but exhibited a minimum of
m/
0.82 at around
= 0.15 where the retention curve exhibits an inflection point. Note that
m/
> 0.9 for
> 0.2 when a transition takes place to saturated flow with
m/
1.
In addition to
m/
, nonequilibrium transport is also characterized by the exchange rate,
. Figure 10
shows 1/
as a function of
for unsaturated flow conditions. Note that 1/
represents the time scale for solute exchange between mobile and immobile phases. For
> 0.15, the exchange time was in the order of 0.1 to 0.2 d, implying rapid solute mixing. The exchange time increased when
became lower for
< 0.15. The maximum value for 1/
was over 10.4 d when
= 0.08 with vm = 58.9 cm d-1.
For
> 0.15, greater
m/
and smaller 1/
occur because relatively uniform and fast flow promotes rapid convective solute mixing in the water-filled pores. For
< 0.15, 1/
increases substantially whereas
m/
increases slightly with decreasing
. At the same time, v(= vm
m/
) decreases exponentially with decreasing
(Fig. 4), resulting in smaller values of the second term on the right-hand side of Eq. [15]. Because 1/
increases as
decreases (Fig. 10), the combined effects of vm and 1/
resulted in a maximum value for
at an intermediate
of 0.13 as shown in Fig. 9.
Unsaturated Flow and Solute Mixing
Examining the water retention curve (Fig. 1), we postulate that most of the soil water is held in soil pores for
> 0.15 and that these pores will be empty for
< 0.15. Figure 11
provides a schematic illustration. As stated previously, the equilibrium CDE should be applied at saturation and
m/
is close to unity (Table 1). As
decreases, air starts entering the pores and
m/
gradually deceases because the flow path becomes more tortuous for lower
. In other words, the relative amount of stagnant water will increase as
decreases up to around
= 0.15. When
decreases further (
< 0.15), there will be few pores that are completely filled with water. Hence water flow occurs increasingly in films enveloping the soil particles. As the thickness of this water film decreases, v will decreases exponentially as
decreases further. At low values for
, the flow will again be more homogeneous in terms of
m/
. Figure 9 suggests that the relative amount of stagnant water decreases as v becomes smaller throughout these films.
Changes in flow domain and v also alter the solute mixing processes. The resistance for solute exchange between mobile and immobile phases increases because of increased tortuosity and reduced contact area; the exchange time, 1/
, will increase accordingly. At lower water contents, (transverse) diffusion will hence become more important for solute spreading because of the reduced opportunity for solute mixing. The role of diffusion can be characterized with the Peclet number of molecular diffusion of Eq. [3]. The effective diffusion coefficient for different water contents may be described with (Millington and Quirk, 1961):
 | [16] |
where Do is the aqueous diffusion coefficient and
is soil porosity (L3 L-3). The characteristic length, d, in Eq. [3] may be expressed using the concept of the equivalent cylindrical capillary radius (Or and Wraith, 2002):
 | [17] |
where h is the soil pressure head (cm). Table 2 also includes Pe for each experiment using vm and the value for d according to Eq. [17] for a certain
MIM using the fitted water retention curve shown in Fig. 2. We calculated De assuming Do = 1 cm2 d-1 (Astle and Beyer, 1985) and
= 0.35.
Figure 10 includes Pe as a function of
. The value for Pe ranges between 10 and 90, and increases with
. When 1/
is the greatest, that is, at
= 0.08, Pe has a minimum of around 11. As stated for saturated media, the role of transverse diffusion increases as Pe decreases (Bear, 1972). Notice that the dispersion coefficient, D or DMIM, is still more than one thousand times greater than the diffusion coefficient, De in Table 2. As discussed, transverse diffusion becomes more important for spreading at lower
and the difference between
and
m will increase as is demonstrated for
< 0.17 in Fig. 8.
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CONCLUSIONS
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Solute displacement experiments were conducted during unit-gradient flow to determine in situ BTCs for a wide range of water contents in a Tottori dune sand. Total resident concentrations were measured with four-electrode salinity probes at several depths of packed soil columns. Transport parameters for the CDE and MIM were determined by optimizing analytical solutions of these models to measured BTCs. Values for the transport parameters agreed well regardless of the depth at which the BTC was determined. The comparison of parameters at several depths to assess transport model and parameters is an obvious advantage of in situ measurement of BTCs.
For unsaturated conditions, the dispersivity,
, had a maximum of 0.97 cm at
= 0.13, whereas for saturated flow
was around 0.1 cm regardless of the pore-water velocity, v. For the MIM, the difference between
and the dispersivity of the mobile phase,
m, increased for
< 0.17. This indicates that transverse diffusion becomes the dominant mechanism for solute mixing at lower
. The mobile fraction,
m/
, gradually decreased from almost unity at saturation to 0.85 at
= 0.15, and slightly increased again with further desaturation. The time for solute exchange between the mobile and immobile phases, 1/
, was 0.1 to 0.2 d for
> 0.15, and increased substantially as
decreased further.
For this nonaggregated dune sand, we postulate that the flow conditions are different for higher and lower water contents. As
decreases, the pore-water velocity decreases exponentially. For
> 0.15, greater
m/
and smaller 1/
occur because of relatively homogeneous flow with rapid convective solute mixing in soil pores. For
< 0.15, a greater 1/
was found because the resistance to solute transfer between mobile and immobile phases increases. The Peclet number for molecular diffusion, Pe, decreases as the role of transverse diffusion increases for lower
because of smaller v and thinner water films in soil pores. We observed that these effects result in a maximum dispersivity for unsaturated flow in a dune sand at intermediate water contents.
The dependency of solute mixing on water contents will be different for aggregated soils than for the nonaggregated sand used in this study. Further measurement of dispersivity over a range of water contents and for different soils are needed to further explore the effects of flow conditions and soil structure on solute mixing in unsaturated soils. Monitoring in situ concentrations in well-controlled unit-gradient flow conditions, such as used in this study, offers great potential for such investigations.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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We thank Dr. Sho Shiozawa of Tokyo University for his technical assistance and Azusa Tsujita for her help with the dispersion experiments. We also appreciate the constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers.
Received for publication February 15, 2002.
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REFERENCES
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