Experiments were made to determine the influence of size of soil sample, convection and water flow on the determination of thermal conductivity of soils using a thin needle (0.05 cm radius, 8.5 cm in length) as the heating element and copper cylinders for sample containers. For measurements during a period of 100 seconds the diameter of the sample must be at least 4 cm and to avoid any influence of convection measurements should not exceed 100 seconds. When heating elements are placed horizontally to measure simultaneously the thermal conductivity of different soil layers they should be placed at least 10 cm apart. Thermal conductivity measurements could be used to determine flow velocities of water in coarse sand samples provided that the real flow velocity was highev than 0.35 cm/ min. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)
Measuring thermal conductivity of soils under laboratory conditions.
