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A New Perspective on Soil Thermal Properties
Author(s) -
Ochsner Tyson E.,
Horton Robert,
Ren Tusheng
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj2001.1641
Subject(s) - thermal diffusivity , soil water , thermal conductivity , soil thermal properties , thermal , thermal conduction , volume fraction , fraction (chemistry) , volume (thermodynamics) , soil science , volumetric heat capacity , heat capacity , materials science , environmental science , thermodynamics , heat transfer , chemistry , field capacity , composite material , heat flux , physics , organic chemistry
The soil thermal properties—heat capacity ( C ), thermal diffusivity (α), and thermal conductivity (λ)—are important in many agricultural, engineering, and meteorological applications. Soil thermal properties are largely dependent on the volume fraction of water (θ), volume fraction of solids ( v s ), and volume fraction of air ( n a ) in the soil. In many natural settings θ, v s , and n a vary greatly over time and space, but data showing the effects of these variations on thermal properties are not readily available. We used a heat‐pulse method to measure the thermal properties of 59 packed columns of four medium‐textured soils covering large ranges of θ, v s , and n a The measured data reveal the commonly overlooked but dominant influence of n a on soil thermal properties. Notably, the measurements show that the λ of these soils at 20°C can be accurately described as a decreasing linear function of n a( r 2 = 0.93 )Good agreement exists between the measured data and common models for λ and C