Abstract
In recent years, with the development of geothermal resources, the thermal conductivity of soil has become a research hotspot. In this study, the thermal conductivity measured by the transient plane heat source method was used to evaluate five common thermal conductivity models from the previous literature. The influences of water content and salt content on the internal heat transfer mode of this soil are explored. It was found that the presence of water in soil changes the conventional mode of point-to-point heat transfer between solid soil particles. With increases in water content, “liquid bridges” are formed between particles. During their formation, NaCl brine can transfer heat in a similar way to water. In this experiment, the model of Usowicz et al. (Intern J Heat Mass Transfer 57:536–571, 2006) was found to best describe the thermal conductivity of soil with salt contents of 0%, 2%, 4% and 6%. This study provides a valuable reference for the development of geothermal resources in the Guanzhong area and for engineering projects in loess areas.
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The financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 41702298, 41790442 and 41972288 from the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China under Grant No. 2017JQ4020.
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Yan, X., Duan, Z. & Sun, Q. Influences of water and salt contents on the thermal conductivity of loess. Environ Earth Sci 80, 52 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-020-09335-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-020-09335-2