THE THERMAL GRADIENT AND COMPACTION EFFECTS ON HEAT AND WATER MOVEMENT IN SOME SOILS OF EGYPT

MASHOUR, AِLI; AL- SHOBAKI, MOHAMED E. E.

doi:10.21608/nssj.2012.31025

THE THERMAL GRADIENT AND COMPACTION EFFECTS ON HEAT AND WATER MOVEMENT IN SOME SOILS OF EGYPT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Soils and Water Dep., Fac. of Agric., Al-Azhar University

² Nuclear Materials Authority,Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/nssj.2012.31025

Abstract

Two laboratory experiments were conducted at the Soil Lab., Fac. of Agric., Al-Azhar Univ. The
first experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of thermal gradient for different soil samples varied
in their texture and moisture content on heat energy and water movement. The second experiment was
conducted to evaluate the effect of compaction on heat transfer in sandy clay loam soil. To achieve these
purposes, different soil columns were prepared to measure soil temperature and moisture content for the
abovementioned treatments.The obtained results of the first experiment showed that the increase in total
heat energy (Ht) and heat content (Hs) of soil was a proportional value to the increase in thermal gradient.
The higher values of Ht and Hs were noticed for sandy clay loam. The net movement of moisture increase
by about 110 % by increasing thermal gradient from dt1 to dt2. The heat energy consumed in moisture
movement (Hc) has been saved with increasing both heat gradient and moisture content values. In other
words, the results of the second experiment showed that heat transfer was affected by compaction, where
the thermal conductivity of soil increased due to bulk density increasing.