Study on Critical Moisture Content of Unsaturated Evaporation

Abstract

Thin layer evaporation tests of three types of soil were conducted by a newly designed humidity-controllable evaporation and penetration measuring system and lasted for 8 days. The whole process of sample mass variation from wet to dry was recorded in the laboratory. The critical moisture content and air-dried moisture content were obtained from evaporation curve, which divided the evaporation process of thin layer unsaturated soil into three stages, including stable rate stage, reducing rate stage and residual stage. The soil water characteristic curves of soils were predicted by Arya and Paris model, the results showed that the critical moisture contents of evaporation process were the same with the water contents corresponding to residue values of SWCC, it is significant to studying on unsaturated evaporation process.