Thermal conductivity of sand under transient conditions - TPSYS02 Thermal Measurement System

Abstract

The growing concerns about the climate change and the negative environmental impacts of heating and cooling systems operated by fossil fuels, have led the technical and the scientific communities to find out more environmentally and sustainable energy alternatives, such is the case of shallow geothermal sources. Shallow geothermal systems use the ground as a heat reservoir, transferring thermal energy from the ground to a building, or vice-versa, with the help of a heat pump, to provide warmth in winter and cooling in summer. A proper evaluation of the thermal properties of the soil is essential in their design process and for a sustainable system. Thermal conductivity is the most important parameter for this evaluation. Thermal conductivity can be estimated or measured by several methods, namely by means of empirical correlations, and experimentally, either in situ, by means of the well-known Thermal Response Tests (TRT), or in the laboratory, under steady state or transient conditions. This work presents a series of thermal conductivity measurements on dry sand samples obtained by means of a high accuracy system with reference TPSYS02 Hukseflux equipped with Non-Steady-State Probes (NSSP) (TP02 or TP08). The system was acquired in the aim of an FCT research project. The work includes the completion of a guide to procedures to the use of the thermal measurement system. Details of its calibration as well as results from tests in soil samples are also presented.