Upgrade of Wind Tunnel/Porous Media Facility to Study Climate Effects on Near Surface Soil Moisture

1029069 Illangasek这笔赠款支持升级现有的8米长的土槽实验中空室，该中空室最初由之前的核磁共振拨款支持，随后得到国防部的支持，包括一个低速(0-10米/S)循环风洞围栏，允许对大气和浅次表层(约2米深)之间的相互作用进行受控实验。资金将支持增加环境温度(-10摄氏度至35摄氏度)和湿度(5-95%)控制。风洞土壤-大气交换系统已经配备了测量速度剖面的二维激光测速系统、压力测量系统、土壤水分和温度探头以及测量土柱内多相系统中相饱和度的X射线衰减系统。升级后的设施将支持调查非等温条件下土壤-大气界面上的水和能量通量，以及环境控制对浅层次表层多相交换过程的影响，这将对农业水资源管理产生影响，并在具有众所周知边界条件的一系列尺度上加深对水文循环的理解。来自实验的数据将为土壤-大气耦合过程的更准确和更现实的模型提供信息。具体应用将包括研究稠密非水相液体(DNAPL)、水蒸气的产生和侵入地下空间、土壤冻结/融化动力学、陆地表面蒸发以及地质上隔离的二氧化碳泄漏到陆地表面的潜在影响。科罗拉多矿业学院的风洞中空体是大学与行业合作研究中心的一部分，该中心是地下环境过程实验研究中心，该中心汇集了CSM不同系的多学科研究人员、科罗拉多其他大学、行业合作伙伴以及国内外合作者。该设施将为CSM及其他学科的研究人员及其学生提供支持，这些学科包括地下水水文学、环境科学和工程以及地质、岩土和石油工程。***

1029069 IllangasekareThis grant supports upgrade of an existing 8 meter long soil tank experimental mesocosm that was originally supported by a previous MRI grant and has subsequently been supported by the Department of Defense to include a low velocity (0-10 m/s) recirculating wind tunnel enclosure that allows for controlled experiments of interactions between the atmosphere and the shallow subsurface (to approximately 2 m depth). Funding will support the addition of environmental temperature (-10 deg C to 35 deg C) and humidity (5-95%) control. The wind tunnel soil-atmosphere exchange mesocosm is already equipped with a 2-d laser velocimetry system to measure velocity profiles, a pressure measuring system, soil moisture and temperature probes and an x-ray attenuation system to measure phase saturations in multiphase systems within the soil column. The upgraded facility would support investigations of water and energy fluxes across the soil-atmosphere interface under non-isothermal conditions and the environmentally controlled impacts on multiphase exchange processes in the shallow subsurface with implications for agricultural water resource management and a deeper understanding of the hydrologic cycle at a range of scales with well known boundary conditions. Data from experiments would inform more accurate and realistic models of coupled soil-atmosphere processes. Specific applications would include study of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPL), vapor generation and intrusion into underground spaces, soil freeze/thaw dynamics, land surface evaporation, and potential impacts of leakage of geologically sequestered CO2 to the land surface. The wind tunnel mesocosm at Colorado School of Mines is part of a university-industry collaborative research center, the Center for Experimental Study of Subsurface Environmental Processes which brings together multidisciplinary group of researchers at different departments at CSM, other Colorado universities, industry partners and US and foreign collaborators. The facility would support researchers and their students at CSM and beyond among the disciplines of subsurface hydrology, environmental sciences and engineering and geological, geotechnical and petroleum engineering. ***