
J. Jpn. Soc. Soil Phys.
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No. 3*, p. -3 ,**,

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*ῌK. J.  **ῌJ.L.

  **On Measuring Soil Thermal Properties
with a Dual-Probe Heat-Pulse Technique
Kosuke NOBORIO*, K. J. MCINNES** and J.L. HEILMAN*** Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka *,*ῌ2//*, Japan** Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A & M University,
College Station, TX 1123.ῌ,.1. U.S.A.
Abstract
Soil thermal properties play an important role in predicting soil temperature for crop production, and in calculating the energy balance at the surface of the earth for predicting global climatechanges.

A single probe method (SP) for measuring thermal conductivity has been popular forover half a century.

However, it needs to separately measure volumetric heat capacity. Recent

developments of dual-probe heat-pulse techniques (DPHP) enable us to simultaneously measurethermal conductivity, l, volumetric heat capacity, rc, and thermal di#usivity, a, with a single
probe.

Three data extracting methods the single-point method (SPM), a nonlinear model ﬁt(NMF), and a weighted nonlinear model ﬁt (WNMF) for DPHP were compared with de Vries
model for estimating thermal properties of loamy sand with a wide range of water contents(air-dry to *.-0 m-/m-).

Performances of DPHP and SP were also compared with two distin-

guished power input to a heater.

Di#erences between estimated and modeled l and rc values

were smaller in the following order : SPMWNMFNMF.
al, recommended for estimating soil thermal properties.

Therefore, using WNMF is, in gener-

The DPHP technique was little a#ectedby increases in contact resistance between soil and the heater probe surface due to evaporation
made by the high power input, whereas SP was a#ected much.
Key words : dual-probe heat-pulse technique, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, thermal
di#usivity, measurement+    

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Fig. +

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single-point method ; (B) a nonlinear
model ﬁt ; and (C) a weighted nonlinear
model fit.

Fig. ,

Thermal conductivity estimated using
de Vries model, and di#erent data extracting
methods
proposedbyBristow et al. (+33/) : (A) the singlepoint method ; (B) a nonlinear model ﬁt; and (C) a weighted nonlinear modelﬁt.

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Relative errors of (A) volumetric heat
capacity and (B) thermal conductivity
estimated using a nonlinear model ﬁt to
those estimated with the single-point
method.

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Fig. .

Thermal conductivity measured using a dual-probe heat-pulse method and a single probe
method with two distinguished power input to the heater.

   ,  rc  +*,*ῌ l  +*.*ῌ    ! "#$%&'()*+lablratory study. Ph.D. Dissertation, Iowa State
University, Ames, IA, U.S.A.
Bristow, K.L., White, R.D. and Kluitenberg, G. J. (+33.),-./012: Comparison of single and dual probes for meas-3456(789: ;<=>2?"56(

uring soil thermal properties with transient

7.@AB C()(%D2EF.GHI
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3456(789:D2C()(cdefg+?"56(7 hij&Yk=C()(heating. Aust. J. Soil Res. -, : ..1ῌ.0..
Bristow, K.L., Bilski, J.R., Kluitenberg, G. J. andHorton, R. (+33/) : Comparison of techniques for
extracting soil thermal properties from dualprobe heat-pulse data. Soil Sci. +0* : +ῌ1.

DBKLGHIJMNRSlmU Z

Campbell, G.S. (+32/) : Soil physics with BASIC.

[\n o pqrsltj&Yk=

Transport models for soil-plant systems. Elsevier

 3456(789:D2_`u.DU"v

Science Publ. Co., New York.



De Vries, D.A. (+30-) : Thermal properties of soils. pp.

0ῌ ῐ

῏

Twx yz{|}:~:{( 
{|}: A&M,+*ῌ,-/. In W.R. van Wijk (ed.) Physics of plant
environment. North-Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam.

{|}:=0

Horton, R. and Wierenga, P. J. (+32.) : The e#ect of1 Research was conducted by The Texas Agri-column wetting on soil thermal conductivity.

cultural Experiment Station, The Texas A & M University System, College Station, Texas.῍ ΐ ῒ ῎Bilskie, J.R. (+33.) : Dual-probe methods for determining soil thermal properties : Numerical andSoil Sci. +-2 : +*,ῌ+*2.
Kasubuchi, T. (+311) : Twin transient-state cylindrical-probe method for the determination of thethermal conductivity of soil. Soil Sci. +,. : ,//ῌ,/2.
Kasubuchi, T. (+32.) : Heat conduction model of satu- :rated soil and estimation of thermal conductivity of soil solid phase. Soil Sci. +-2 : ,.*ῌ,.1.

9probe. Soil Sci. +0+ : ,,ῌ,2.
Ren, T., Noborio, R. and Horton, R. (+333) : Measuring

Kunii, D. and Smith, J.M. (+30*) : Heat transfer char-soil water content, electrical conductivity, andacteristics of porous rocks. AIChE J. 0 : 1+ῌ12.

thermal properties with a thermo-time domain

Noborio, K. and McInnes, K. J. (+33-) Thermal conduc-reﬂectometry probe. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 0- : ./*tivity of salt-a#ected soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. /1: -,3ῌ--..
Noborio, K., McInnes, K. J. and Heilman, J.L. (+330) :Measurements of soil water content, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity with a single TDR

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Shiozawa, S. and Campbell, G.S. (+33*) : Soil thermal
conductivity. Remote Sens. Rev. / : -*+ῌ-+*.
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