Influence of Soil Moisture on Soil Gas Vapor Concentration for Vapor Intrusion

摘要

Mathematical models have been widely used in analyzing the effects of various environmental factors in thenvapor intrusion process. Soil moisture content is one of the key factors determining the subsurface vapornconcentration profile. This manuscript considers the effects of soil moisture profiles on the soil gas vapornconcentration away from any surface capping by buildings or pavement. The ‘‘open field’’ soil gas vapornconcentration profile is observed to be sensitive to the soil moisture distribution. The van Genuchten relationsncan be used for describing the soil moisture retention curve, and give results consistent with the results from anprevious experimental study. Other modeling methods that account for soil moisture are evaluated. Thesenmodeling results are also compared with the measured subsurface concentration profiles in the U.S. EPA vapornintrusion database.