Evaluation of Methods for Calculating Soil Thermal Conductivity

• Main Author: Farouki,Omar T
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1982
• Subjects: Geology; Geochemistry and Mineralogy; Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *Soils; *Thermal conductivity; *Soil tests; Heat transfer; Permafrost; Moisture content; Density; Solids; Chemical composition; Computer programs; Equations; Computations; PE65803A; AS761; WU0051; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA117889; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA117889

A detailed analysis of methods for calculating the thermal conductivity of soils is presented, and trends in the predictions of these methods are compared. The influence of changes in the moisture content on the calculated thermal conductivity of a soil (at constant dry density) is shown as is the sensitivity of this calculated value to changes in dry density or in the soil solids' thermal conductivity. The methods are evaluated to determine the extent of agreement of their predictions with measured values obtained on soils of known composition and properties. The deviations of the predicted values are determined for soils that are unfrozen or frozen, coarse or fine, unsaturated, saturated or dry. The applicability of each of the methods under various conditions is determined and recommendations are made as to the best method for each condition. (Author)