Coupled heat-mass transport effects on moisture redistribution prediction in clay barriers

The issues associated with coupled transient heat and mass transfer in unsaturated clay barriers surrounding a buried heat source are considered, and the effects of driving forces in both the liquid and vapour phases are discussed. The reasons for the inability of the model of Philip and de Vries (1957) to accurately predict the redistribution of moisture in unsaturated clay barriers are explained. The model of Yong and Xu (1988) is used to predict the moisture redistribution of non-swelling unsaturated clay barriers. The large variations of the moisture values predicted by the two models are also discussed.