Evaporation and capillary coupling across vertical textural contrasts in porous media

High and nearly constant evaporation rates from initially saturated porous media are sustained by capillary-driven flow from receding drying front below the evaporating surface. The spatial extent of continuous liquid pathways in homogeneous porous medium is defined by its hydraulically connected pore size distribution. We consider here evaporative losses from porous media consisting of two hydraulically coupled dissimilar domains each with own pore and particle size distributions separated by sharp vertical textural contrast. Evaporation experiments from texturally dissimilar media were monitored using neutron transmission and dye pattern imaging to quantify water distribution and drying front dynamics. Drying front invades exclusively coarse-textured domain while fine-textured domain remains saturated and its surface continuously coupled with the atmosphere. Results show that evaporation from fine-textured surface was supplied by liquid flow from adjacent coarse domain driven by capillary pressure differences between the porous media. A first characteristic length defining limiting drying front depth during which fine sand region remains saturated is deduced from difference in air-entry pressures of the two porous media. A second characteristic length defining the end of high evaporation rate includes the extent of continuous liquid films pinned in the crevices of the pore space and between particle contacts in the fine medium. We established numerically the lateral extent of evaporation-induced hydraulic coupling that is limited by viscous losses and gravity. For certain combinations of soil types the lateral extent of hydraulic coupling may exceed distances of 10 m. Results suggest that evaporative water losses from heterogeneous and coupled system are larger compared with uncoupled or homogenized equivalent systems.