THE THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME HIGHLY WEATHERED SOILS OF PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

H. GHULAM MOHAMMED

Abstract

The important thermal properties of soils are defined and discussed. In the highly weathered soils of Peninsular Malaysia, the effect of sand content on thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity is clearly shown. Higher sand content increases the value of these variables. The effect of the grain size of the sand fraction is also clearly brought out in a comparison between soils of the Bungor and Rengam series. The role of water in increasing the thermal conductivity and the thermal diffusivity of soils is greatly modified by the sand content. A higher sand content results in a greater increase in conductivity and diffusivity, especially in the range of volumetric water contents > 0.16. Heat transfer is greatly reduced in soils whose aggregates were broken down due to excessive wetting. Besides aggregate stability, other elements of soil structure such as aggregate size and porosity were also shown to influence the thermal properties of soils.

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