RETRACTED: Impact of the Efflorescence Formation on the Salt Colonization of the Surface of Heterogeneous Porous Medium

Retracted paper: Evaporation of a saline solution from a porous medium often leads to the formation of salt efflorescence at the surface of the medium. We look at the special case where the medium is formed by the assembly of fine and coarse medium vertical columns perpendicular to the evaporation surface and where there is a continuous wicking of the solution into the medium in combination with evaporation. Experiments lead to distinguish two main cases depending on the development or not of the efflorescence at the surface of the coarse medium. On the contrary, the presented analysis suggests that the coarse medium surface colonization occurs when the evaporation flux is sufficiently high no matter what the type of efflorescence is on the fine medium surface. In addition, the analysis suggests that the colonization will always occur when the supersaturation is close to the solubility.