Experimental And Numerical Invetigation Of Dependence Of Soil Thermal Conductivity On Temperature Water Content, And Soil Texture

Comprehensive set of thermal conductivity data for a loam soil was generated, for temperature variations from 5ºC to 92ºC and water content variations from dry to saturation, and compared to two other soil textures. The results exhibited similar characteristics as those of the other textures, where a significant change in soil thermal conductivity was. Using the thermal conductivity data sets, a model representing heat and mass transfer in soil was used to study the apparent thermal conductivity due to vapour migration. In addition, a computer simulation of a ground source heat pump system was developed, where the experimental data was used to investigate the impact of water content and soil texture variation on the GSHP performance. It was observed that the GSHP energy consumption varied more prominently when the soil wetness varied from dryness to full saturation and less significantly when the soil type varied from coarse to finer texture.