• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 1996

A diffusion process is often the main mechanism of soil gas/vapor movement in the vadose zone. The diffusion coefficients in the porous soil media are different from those in the free air phase by the reduction of available area for diffusion, tortuous diffusion path and variable cross section area along the diffusion path. To take account those effects of the diffusion process in the porous media, usually the terms of effective diffusion coefficient and tortuosity are have been used. However, as there are many differents definitions for the tortuosity, when the term of tortuosity is used, it is necessary to examine it throughly. Moreover, there are many different equations for the effective diffusion coefficient according to the investigators and the differences in the values of effective diffusion coefficients between the equations are not insignificant, the selection of the equation should be done with caution. In this paper, the different definitions of effective diffusion coefficient are examined and discussed. As well as definitions, the lots of availabe models for the diffusion coefficient in terms of porosities are compared. Also, the constrictiviy which explains the effect of cross sectional area change over the diffusion path was discussed.