Capillary, film, and vapor flow in bare soil evaporation: identification using experimental data

Abstract: Evaporation experiments are frequently used to identify the hydraulic properties of soils by inverse simulations with the Richards equation or simplified calculation methods. Evaporation experiments with an extended instrumentation were conducted in a temperature-controlled lab. Evaporation rates were measured gravimetrically, soil water pressure head was measured using mini-tensiometers and relative humidity sensors, and soil temperature was measured using thermocouples. The measurements were evaluated by inverse modeling with the Richards equation and the soil hydraulic properties, i.e. the water retention and hydraulic conductivity curves, were identified. The dataset contains all experimental data and the results of the inverse simulation, i.e. fitted time series of pressure head and the identified soil hydraulic properties of two soils (sand and silt loam).