Analytical solutions for benchmarking cold regions subsurface water flow and energy transport models: One-dimensional soil thaw with conduction and advection

•There has been little comparison of cold regions flow and heat transport models.•Analytical solutions make excellent benchmarks for inter-code comparison.•We present a solution that includes conduction, advection and phase change.•We test its accuracy via comparisons to the Neumann solution and a numerical model.•We report detailed simulation results to facilitate future benchmarking endeavors.

Numerous cold regions water flow and energy transport models have emerged in recent years. Dissimilarities often exist in their mathematical formulations and/or numerical solution techniques, but few analytical solutions exist for benchmarking flow and energy transport models that include pore water phase change. This paper presents a detailed derivation of the Lunardini solution, an approximate analytical solution for predicting soil thawing subject to conduction, advection, and phase change. Fifteen thawing scenarios are examined by considering differences in porosity, surface temperature, Darcy velocity, and initial temperature. The accuracy of the Lunardini solution is shown to be proportional to the Stefan number. The analytical solution results obtained for soil thawing scenarios with water flow and advection are compared to those obtained from the finite element model SUTRA. Three problems, two involving the Lunardini solution and one involving the classic Neumann solution, are recommended as standard benchmarks for future model development and testing.