An Approaching the Thermal Resistivity Behavior for a Porous Media with Different Percentages of Gravels

Aims: To evaluate the influence of the coarse elements on the relationship between thermal and hydric soil properties.

Study Design: The samples were obtained from Camí de Can Solé (NE of Spain), and analyzed under laboratory conditions.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Agri-Food Engineering and Biotechnology, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, between June 2011 and Setember 2011.

Methodology: Thermal conductivity was determined using thermal sensors of single needle. The experiments were carried out on monitorized soil columns where their water content and thermal properties were continuously recorded. Different percentages of gravels were added to the samples.

Results and Conclusion: A dataset related to water content and thermal resisitivity was gathered. The variability of the data depended on the coarse fragments. The relationship between thermal conductivity and water content show higher differences when the coarse elements were about 10% and 50%, being especially relevant to the position of the thermal sensor inside the soil samples