Development of a numerical model for predicting the volatilization flux from unsaturated soil

In recent years, exposure to volatile chemical substances (VCSs) from contaminated soil has become a serious problem so it has become increasingly important to study the transport phenomena of VCSs. In this study we focused on the transport phenomena of VCSs at the boundary layer between the soil surface and the atmosphere, and defined it as volatilization flux, which express the amount of volatilized substances per unit volume per unit time. In order to estimate the phenomena of mercury transport in unsaturated soil and mercury released from soil to the atmosphere, it is necessary to consider in detail the spatiotemporal fluctuations of factors that affect the volatilization of mercury and the physical transport phenomena in soil.

The present study developed a model for predicting the volatilization flux from the unsaturated soil contaminated by VCSs. The model considers a series of phenomena under the unsaturated condition such as gas-liquid two-phase flow consisting of convection and diffusion. The effects of various transport phenomena on the surface soil on changes in the magnitude of this flux due to variations in meteorological factors such as temperature and soil moisture content were quantitatively evaluated. This developed prediction model can be utilized to estimate dynamic variations in the flux under real-environmental conditions.