Finite difference modeling of heat distribution in multilayer soils with time-spatial hydrothermal properties

Hossein Nowamooz, Saeid Nikoosokhan, Jian Lin and Cyrille Chazallon

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 76, issue C, 7-15

Abstract: In this study, the heat distribution throughout the profile of unsaturated multilayered soil is determined using finite difference method while its thermal diffusivity varies with time and depth. First, the input parameters such as water content, dry density and sand content of the soil profile are provided. These data are coupled with the theoretical approaches to estimate thermal properties of soil such as thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of multilayered soil. Second, finite difference method is used to model heat distributions in soil profile taking into account the initial and boundary conditions. A continuity of heat flux between each layer is performed as a condition in the numerical model. A comparison of estimated temperature within time throughout the profile with the thermal probe measurements shows a satisfactory capacity of the numerical model. Finally, different cases of nonhomogeneous and homogeneous soil show that thermal response of homogeneous and nonhomogeneous soils are almost similar at average value of thermal diffusivity where hydrothermal characteristics of each soil layer (such as water content, dry density, and soil texture) are required to calculate this average value.

Keywords: Finite difference method; Multilayered soil heat distribution; Time-spatial variable thermal diffusivity; Homogeneous soil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014811400723X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:76:y:2015:i:c:p:7-15

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.11.008

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().