Heat Transfer Within the Lunar Surface Layer

Abstract

Heat transfer within the lunar surface layer depends on several thermophysical properties of the lunar regolith—that is, the material making up the surface layer. These include the thermal conductivity, specific heat, thermal diffusivity, and thermal parameter. This chapter illustrates that the thermal conductivity and specific heat are key transport properties for energy-transfer calculations in solid media. The thermal parameter is of particular historical interest in lunar research as it appears as a parameter in constant property solutions of the transient energy equation describing heat transfer on the moon. Furthermore, the value of the thermal parameter that gave best agreement with measurement is then used as a clue as to the constitution of the lunar surface layer. Finally, this chapter concludes that the thermal conductivity and specific heat both increase with temperature.