The insensitivity of thermal diffusivity of natural sediments to saturation

Abstract

This extended abstract presents a ground-breaking study of thermal properties of soils and their dependency on saturation. The paper tries to prove that thermal diffusivity is not significantly dependent on saturation due to its close relationship with saturation-independent parameters such as thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity. The investigation is divided into two main scopes of work: the first is to build statistical analysis using the Monte Carlo technique by means of random sampling certain soil thermal properties; and the second is to experimentally validate the statistical models. The experimental framework of the study encompasses the measurement of thermal properties of different soil samples. These samples varied in terms of grain size, percentage clay content, and level of saturation. The experiments were carried out using a KD2-Pro Dual Needle Probe Thermal Properties Analyser. The results demonstrate that saturation has a negligible effect on thermal diffusivity of soils but an inverse relationship exists between diffusivity and clay content. Furthermore, the variation in grain size effect on diffusivity is within 5%. The study shows a correlation between lithology, porosity, and thermal properties. The implications are numerous: from the determination of unwanted heat diffusion of pipelines to the estimation of reservoir properties such as porosity and permeability.