Heat and mass transfer in a freezing unsaturated porous medium.

A numerical simulation of a laboratory experiment involving coupled heat and mass transfer in a horizontal porous medium column with one end subjected to a temperature below 0°C has been carried out. The model is essentially that of Harlan (1973) and is solved numerically by the finite difference method using the Crank-Nicholson scheme. The solution yields temperature, liquid water content, and ice content profiles along the column as a function of time. Comparison of the experimental results and the simulation analysis results shows that Harlan's model, with some modification in the hydraulic conductivity of the frozen medium, can be used successfully to simulate numerically the coupled heat and mass transfer processes when ice lensing does not occur.

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