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Measuring thermal properties and water content of soil and oil sands mature fine tailing using the heat pulse probe method

Date

2016-04-19

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Type

Thesis

Degree Level

Doctoral

Abstract

Measurements of thermal properties and water contents of soil are important for predicting the water and energy balance in terrestrial ecosystems and for many agricultural, environmental, geophysical, and engineering applications. The heat pulse probe method including the single-probe heat pulse (SPHP) and the dual-probe heat pulse (DPHP) is the only approach that can appropriately measure soil thermal properties in situ. Currently, the SPHP can only be used to measure soil thermal conductivity (λ), but the DPHP can measure λ, thermal diffusivity (α), volumetric heat capacity (C), and θ simultaneously. However, little is known about the performance of the DPHP in a saturated suspension medium; for example, the oil sands mature fine tailing (MFT). To the best of my knowledge, no report is available on the determination of θ using the SPHP. In addition, accurate thermal contact conductivity (H) values between the probe and soil are currently unknown, but is a prerequisite for accurately determining soil thermal properties and θ by the SPHP. This dissertation sought to improve the heat pulse probe method by applying the DPHP in measuring the bulk density (ρb) of MFT, and developing the SPHP for θ estimation. Three studies were conducted: 1) to evaluate the feasibility of determining the solid percentage of MFT using the DPHP; 2) to compare θ estimations from the relationships between θ and λ, normalized cumulative temperature increase (TNcum), and normalized maximum temperature increase (TNmax) using the SPHP; and 3) to obtain the H values experimentally and evaluate the performance of θ estimation by the H(θ) relationships using the SPHP. This dissertation demonstrates that the DPHP can be used to accurately measure the solid percentage of MFT, and the accuracy can be improved by independent measurement of soil specific heat of solids (cs). It also shows that a combination of the λ(θ), TNcum(θ), and TNmax(θ) methods facilitates θ determination using the SPHP. Probe independence is the advantage of the λ(θ) method; however, the TNcum(θ) and TNmax(θ) methods are especially useful when a faster and more frequent measurement is required. The SPHP measured H(θ) relationships can be used to estimate θ accurately for different textured soils except for coarse sand. More studies should be conducted to build the pedotransfer functions between soil physical properties and the λ(θ), TNcum(θ), TNmax(θ), and H(θ) relationships.

Description

Keywords

soil water content, soil thermal property, heat pulse probe, mature fine tailing, thermal contact conductivity, bulk density.

Citation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering

Program

Soil Science

Advisor

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