• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2011

Storing and transferring heat in soils is governed by the soil thermal properties and these properties are therefore needed in many engineering applications, including horizontal ground heat exchanger for ground-coupled heat pumps. This paper presents the evaluation results of the ground subsurface temperature and apparent thermal diffusivity of soils by using ground temperature data collected at the depths of 0.5 m, 1.0 m, 1.5 m, 3.0 m, and 5.0 m at four sites. The existing correlation assuming that the soil was homogeneous and of constant thermal diffusivity was applied to calculate the subsurface temperature and two analytical equations, amplitude and phase equation, were also used to evaluate the soil apparent thermal diffusivity. Comparison of the estimated and of the measured values of the subsurface temperature has shown that the empirical correlation predicts quite accurately the ground temperature at various depths. Based on the one-dimensional heat conduction equation, the apparent thermal diffusivity can be estimated by the two equations.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.356-364
• /
• 2011

Storage and transfer heat in soils is governed by the soil thermal properties and these properties are therefore needed in many engineering applications, including horizontal ground heat exchanger for ground-coupled heat pumps. This paper presents the evaluation results of the thermal diffusivity of soils (silica, quartzite, limestone, sandstone, granite, and two masonry soils used for the trench backfilling materials of the horizontal ground heat exchanger. To assess this thermal property, we (i) measure the soil thermal conductivities using single-probe method and (ii) use the de Vries method of summing the heat capacities of the soil constituents. The results show that the thermal diffusivity tends to increase as dry soil begins to wet, but it approaches a constant value or even decreases as the soil continues to wet. Combined algorithm with and improved model for the thermal conductivity of soils and the constituent equation provides accurate estimates of the soil thermal diffusivity.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.51-59
• /
• 2011

Storage and transfer heat in soils are governed by the soil thermal properties and these properties are therefore needed in many engineering applications, including horizontal ground heat exchanger for ground-coupled heat pumps. This paper presents the measured results of the thermal diffusivity of soils(silica, quartzite, limestone, sandstone, and masonry soils) used for the trench backfilling materials of the horizontal ground heat exchanger. To assess this thermal property, we (i) measure the soil thermal conductivities and volumetric heat capacities using dual-probe method and (ii) compare the estimates from the de Vries method of summing the heat capacities of the soil constituents. The results show that the thermal diffusivity tends to increase as dry soil begins to wet, but it approaches a constant value or even decreases as the soil continues to wet. Measurements made by using the dual-probe method agreed well with independent estimates obtained using the single-probe method.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2012

The thermal properties including volumetric heat capacity, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and diurnal and annual damping depths of 10 representative soil series of Korea were calculated using some measurable soil parameters based on the Taxonomical Classification of Korean Soils. The heat capacity of soils demonstrated a linear function of water content and ranged from 0.2 to $0.8cal\;cm^{-3}^{\circ}C^{-1}$ for dry and saturated medium-textured soil, respectively. A small increase in water content of the dry soils caused a sharp increase in thermal conductivity. Upon further increases in water content, the conductivity increased ever more gradually and reached to a maximum value at saturation. The transition from low to high thermal conductivity occurred at low water content in the soils with coarse texture, and at high water content in the other textures. Thermal conductivity ranged between $0.37{\times}10^{-3}cal\;cm^{-1}s^{-1}^{\circ}C^{-1}$ for dry (medium-textured) soil and $4.01{\times}10^{-3}cal\;cm^{-1}s^{-1}^{\circ}C^{-1}$ for saturated (medium/coarse-textured) soil. The thermal diffusivity initially increased rapidly with small increases in water content of the soils, and then decreased upon further increases in the soil-water content. Even in an extreme soil with the highest diffusivity value ($1.1{\times}10^{-2}cm^2s^{-1}$), the daily temperature variation did not penetrate below 70 cm soil depth and the yearly variation not below 13.4 m as four times of damping depths.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.21-30
• /
• 1998

A theoretical model was developed to evaluate the effects of soil and airflow characteristics on the soil-air heat exchanger performances. The model, which includes three-dimensional transient energy and mass equilibrium-equation, was solved by using a computer program that uses Finite Difference Methods and Gauss-Seidel iteration computation. Energy gains, heat exchange efficiencies, and outlet air temperature are presented including the effects of soil moisture content, soil conductivity, soil thermal diffusivity, and soil initial temperature. Also, data related to the effects of airflow rate and inlet air temperature on the thermal performance of the system are presented. The results indicated that energy gains depend on soil conductivity, soil thermal diffusivity, and soil initial temperature. Heat exchange efficiencies relied on air mass flow rate and soil moisture content.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.220-230
• /
• 1992

Soil temperature is one of the important environmental factors which control all the physical, chemical and biological processes in soil including germination and root growth of plants and other organisms living in the soil ecosystem. Soil water and nutrient availability and mobility are temperature dependent. Soil temperature change is depended primarily upon energy exchange in soil surface, meteorological variance and physical properties of the soils which are closely related to heat transfer mechanism. In this study physical properties including bulk density, soil texture and organic matter content were measured and thermal diffusivity on the soils was calculated. Soil samples from the 66 meteorological stations under the Korea Meteorology were collected and the physical parameters were measured. To obtain relationship between thermal diffusivity and soil water content a heat probe thermal diffusivity measurement apparatus was designed and used in this experiment. According to the survey on soil physicsal properties on the 66 meteorological stations, the 52% of the surface soil texture were sandy loam and laomy sand or sand, 38% were loam and silty loam, and 10% were clay loam and silty clay loam. The bulk density which was closely related with thermal properties showed average of $1.41g/cm^3$ for sandy soils, $1.33g/cm^3$ for loam and silty loam soils, and $1.21g/cm^3$ for clay loam and silty clay loam soils. The apparent thermal diffusivity of the upper layer from 0 to 30cm ranged from 1.16 to $8.40{\times}10^{-3}cm^3/sec$ with average of $3.53{\times}10^{-3}cm^3/sec$. The apparent thermal diffusivities of the Jeju soils of which organic matter contents were high and the bulk densities were low were near $2{\times}10^{-3}cm^3/sec$. The thermal diffusivity of snow measured in Chuncheon ranged from 0.822 to $2.237{\times}10^{-3}cm^3/sec$. The damping depth calculated from the thermal diffusivity ranged from 5.92 to 13.65cm for daily basis and 124 to 342cm for yearly basis. The significant regression equation to estimate thermal diffusivity with bulk density and soil water content was obtained by the heat probe in laboratory.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2006

This study is to develop a model to predict the soil temperature variation in Korea Institute of Energy Research using its thermal properties, such as thermal conductivity and diffusivity. Soil depth temperature variation is very important in the design of a proper Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) system. This is because the size of the borehole depends on the soil temperature distribution, and this can decrease GSHP system cost. If the thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity are known, the soil temperature can be predicted by either the Krarti equation or the Spitler equation. Then a comparison with the Krarti equation and Spitler equation data with the real measured data can be performed. Also, the thermal properties can be reasonably approximated by performing a fit of the Krarti and Spitler equations with measured temperature data. This was done and, as a result, the Krarti equation and Spitler equation predicted values very close to the measured data. Although there is about a $0.5^{\circ}C$ difference between the deep subsurface prediction (16m - 60m), with this equation, were expected to have model this Non-Homogeneous Soil Temperature phenomenon properly. So, it has been shown that a prediction of non-homogeneous soil temperature variation influenced by solar radiation can be achieved with a model.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.281-290
• /
• 2013

The vertical structure of sediment temperatures in the tidal flats of Geunso Bay and Seonyu Island in western Korea were measured for more than a year and analyzed. Mean temperature decreased with depth in spring and summer. On the contrary, it increased with depth in fall and winter, faithfully reflecting the seasonal variation resulting from the heating and cooling of the surface sediment. The surface sediment temperatures are shown to be strongly dependent on solar radiation, M2, and M4 tidal components. They are also weakly affected by precipitation. Thermal diffusivity of sediment is estimated at each depth and in each of the four seasons by applying the amplitude equation method. In Geunso Bay, the estimated seasonal-mean values decreased with depth, while they showed little change in Seonyu Island. Depth-averaged thermal diffusivity in Geunso Bay ($1.94 {\times}10^{-7}m^2/s$) was smaller than Seonyu Island ($2.20 {\times}10^{-7}m^2/s$). The variability of thermal diffusivity is shown to corelate with sediment composition and sorting from the grain-size analysis of intertidal sediments in Geunso Bay and Seonyu-do.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.32 no.7
• /
• pp.5-14
• /
• 2016

The use of geothermal energy has increased for economically and environmentally friendly utilization, and a geothermal heat pump (GSHP) system for space heating and cooling is being used widely. As ground thermal properties such as ground thermal conductivity and ground thermal diffusivity are substantial parameters in the design of geothermal heat pump system, ground thermal conductivity should be obtained from in-situ thermal response test (TRT). This paper presents an experimental study of ground thermal properties of U and 2U type ground heat exchangers (GHEs) measured by TRTs. The U and 2U type GHEs were installed in a partially saturated dredged soil deposit, and TRTs were conducted for 48 hours. A method to derive the thermal diffusivity as well as thermal conductivity was proposed from a non-linear regression analysis. In addition, remolded soil samples from different layers were collected from the field, and soil specimens were reconstructed according to the field ground condition. Then equivalent ground thermal conductivity and ground thermal diffusivity were calculated from the lab test results and they were compared with the in-situ TRT results.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 2002.07a
• /
• pp.22-24
• /
• 2002

This paper introduces the real-time soil thermal property analyzer and temperature measuring system which is combined with radio telecommunication technique. To measure the thermal parameters in real-time, the radio telecommunication technique are used the personal communication service (PCS) which is in the world-wide serviced commercially firstly by CDMA. The thermal property analyzer has an ability of measuring thermal resistivity, thermal diffusivity and thermal stability. To estimate the soil thermal properties, the curve fitting algorithm by means of the least square method are used. TCP/IP protocol and MTM are used to install the real-time soil thermal property and temperature measurement system at multiple locations along routes of the underground power cables and to reduce the cost of telecommunication.