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A modified normalized model for predicting effective soil thermal conductivity

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Abstract

Effective soil thermal conductivity (λ eff) describes the ability of a multiphase soil to transmit heat by conduction under unit temperature gradient. It is a critical parameter for environmental science, earth and planetary science, and engineering applications. Numerous models are available in the literature, but their applicability is generally restricted to certain soil types or water contents (θ). The objective of this study was to develop a new model in the similar form of the Johansen 1975 model to simulate the λ eff(θ) relationship of soils of various soil textures and water contents. An exponential type model with two parameters is developed and a new function for calculating dry soil thermal conductivity is presented. Performance of the new model and six other normalized models were evaluated with published datasets. The results show that the new model is able to well mimic λ eff(θ) relationship of soils from sand to silt loam and from oven dry to full saturation. In addition, it has the best performance among the seven models under test (with root-mean-square error of 0.059 W m−1 °C−1, average deviations of 0.0009 W m−1 °C−1, and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.994). The new model has potential to improve the reliability of soil thermal conductivity estimation and be incorporated into numerical modeling for environmental, earth and engineering studies.

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Acknowledgements

Datasets used in this study were digitalized from the published literature. Funding for this research was provided in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant Nos. 41501231, 41371233, and 41371234), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, China (Grant No. 2016JQ4008), the Northwest A&F University (the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities-2452015178 and the Doctoral Start-up Foundation-2452015287), the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (Open Fund No. SKLFSE201503), and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC discovery Grants to Dr. Miles Dyck and Dr. Bingcheng Si).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and the Agri-Environment in Northwest China (Ministry of Agriculture) and College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Hailong He, Ying Zhao, Jialong Lv & Jinxin Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, China

    Hailong He & Huijun Jin

  3. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G2H1, Canada

    Miles F. Dyck

  4. College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Bingcheng Si

  5. Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N5A8, Canada

    Bingcheng Si

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  1. Hailong He
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  2. Ying Zhao
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  3. Miles F. Dyck
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  4. Bingcheng Si
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  5. Huijun Jin
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Correspondence to Hailong He, Jialong Lv or Jinxin Wang.

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He, H., Zhao, Y., Dyck, M.F. et al. A modified normalized model for predicting effective soil thermal conductivity. Acta Geotech. 12, 1281–1300 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-017-0563-z

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