Wind Power

AN INFORMATION SHARING TOOL TO HELP DEVELOP OUR WIND POWER DESIGN EXPERTISE Design

TODAY’S TOPIC:

Determining Maximum Soil Temperature

ISSUE W-14

April 14, 2009

The previous issue showed how to derate conductor ampacity based on the
maximum soil temperature conditions. This is good information ONLY if we
know what the maximum soil temperature conditions are.

This issue provides information which can be used to determine the probable
maximum soil temperature for any region in the contiguous United States.
The information presented here is available from the web site
http://www.geo4va.vt.edu/A1/A1.htm. This issue also touches again on thermal
conductivity of soils, since the information from this web site provides a
good overview of how soil properties relate to heat transfer.

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Soil Temperature

The web site http://www.geo4va.vt.edu/A1/A1.htm provides good

information for determining soil temperatures within the
contiguous United States. This site provides information from a
special energy project funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s State
Energy Program, through the Virginia Department of Mines,
Minerals, and Energy. The material on the following pages is
derived from this web site.

Material from http://www.geo4va.vt.edu/A1/A1.htm

Earth Temperature and Site Geology

Soil temperature varies from month to month as a function of incident solar
radiation, rainfall, seasonal swings in overlying air temperature, local vegetation cover,
type of soil, and depth in the earth. Due to the much higher heat capacity of soil relative to
air and the thermal insulation provided by vegetation and surface soil layers, seasonal
changes in soil temperature deep in the ground are much less than and lag significantly
behind seasonal changes in overlying air temperature. Thus in spring, the soil naturally
warms more slowly and to a lesser extent than the air, and by summer, it has become
cooler than the overlying air and is a natural sink for removing heat from a building.
Likewise in autumn, the soil cools more slowly and to a lesser extent than the air, and by
winter it is warmer than the overlying air and a natural source for adding heat to a
building.

At soil depths greater than 30 feet below the surface, the soil temperature is
relatively constant, and corresponds roughly to the water temperature measured in
groundwater wells 30 to 50 feet deep. This is referred to as the “mean earth temperature.”

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Mean Earth Temperature

Figure 2 below shows the mean earth temperature contours across the United States.

Figure 2. Mean annual earth temperature observations at individual stations, superimposed

on well-water temperature contours.

Note that most of our wind farm work is located in the northern region of Texas,
where the mean annual earth temperature is approximately 62 oF. This number provides us
with the constant earth temperature for deeper soil conditions, but the number does not
represent the seasonal effects that will occur at cable burial depths.

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Seasonal Effects on Earth Temperature

The amplitude of seasonal changes in soil temperature on either side of the mean
earth temperature depends on the type of soil and depth below the ground surface,
depending on the extent and type of vegetation cover. At depths greater than about 30 feet
below the surface, however, the soil temperature remains relatively constant throughout
the year, as shown in Figure 3, below:

Figure 3. Amplitude of seasonal soil temperature change as a function of depth below

ground surface.

The amplitude of seasonal temperature changes to the soil changes, depending on

the soil moisture, so three difference sets of curves are presented. We use the curves for
wet soil as our worst-case condition, since it is likely that soil moisture will be retained at
42” below grade (except immediately around the conductor). Notice that for typical cable
burial depths of 42”, the amplitude from seasonal effects is approximately 17oF. The
amplitude will be smaller for extreme southern regions, where the seasonal temperature
swings are more moderate.

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Time Lag on Heat Transfer Through Soil

Deeper soils not only experience less extreme seasonal variations in temperature,
but the changes that do occur lag farther behind those of shallower soils. This shifts the
soil temperature profile later in the year, such that it more closely matches the demand for
heating and cooling.

Refer to Figure 4 below. In this example, the maximum soil temperature occurs
around mid August for typical cable burial depths (42” below grade). Notice that as we
penetrate deeper into the soil, two things happen:

The maximum soil temperature decreases

The time lag for summer heat to affect the soil temperature increases.

Figure 4. Seasonal soil temperature change as a function of depth below ground surface for
an average moist soil.

It is important to accurately know how the seasonal change in soil temperature varies with
depth, which is mainly determined by the soil's thermal properties.

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Soil Thermal Properties - Revisited

Heat capacity (also known as specific heat) indicates the ability of a substance to
store heat energy. The greater its heat capacity, the more heat it can gain (or lose) per unit
rise (or fall) in temperature. The heat capacity of dry soil is about 0.20 BTU per pound per
ºF of temperature change, which is only one-fifth the heat capacity of water. Therefore,
moist or saturated soils have greater heat capacities, typically in the range of 0.23 to 0.25
BTU/lb/ºF. As shown in Figure 3 above, light dry soils experience greater seasonal
temperature swings at a given depth than wet soils. This is because their lower heat
capacity causes their temperature to rise or fall more than wet soils for a given amount of
heat energy gained in the spring or lost in the fall.

Figure 5. Thermal conductivity of different soil types.

Thermal conductivity indicates the rate at which heat will be transferred

between the conductor and the surrounding soil for a given temperature gradient.

Figure 5 indicates the thermal conductivity of different soil types. Heat transfer
capability tends to increase as soil texture becomes increasingly fine, with loam mixtures
having an intermediate value between sand and clay. As also shown in this figure, the
thermal conductivity of any soil greatly improves if the soil is saturated with water. This
effect is much greater for sandy soils than for clay or silt, since coarse soils are more
porous and therefore hold more water when wet. Therefore, groundwater level is another
important site factor in evaluating thermal conductivity, and the extent to which the soil is
routinely saturated with water greatly influence a soil's thermal properties.

Maps are available which provide rough estimates of soil properties for regional
screening purposes, but any sort of detailed feasibility assessment or design study should
engage a contractor for in-situ soil thermal conductivity testing. In-situ conductivity testing
minimizes the uncertainty in estimating this key thermal property.

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Site Geology

Soil texture: The thermal conductivity of dry soils tends to increase as their texture
becomes increasingly fine. This simply is a consequence of the fact that the thermal
conductivity of air is about one hundred times less than that of solid soil particles. Finer
soils have more particle-to-particle contact and smaller insulating air gaps between
particles than coarse soils, hence increased conductivity. The opposite is true for soils
saturated with water, when the pore spaces between particles is filled with water rather
than air, since the thermal conductivity of water is about two to three times greater than
that of solid soil particles.

Using the Information to Determine Maximum Soil Temperature

As noted earlier, the mean earth temperature can be established from the isotherms shown
in Figure 2, and the maximum earth temperature can be determined by adding a value of
17oF to the mean earth temperature.

We also established that the

mean earth temperature in
northern Texas is
approximately 62oF. Adding
17oF to this value gives us a
maximum soil temperature
of 79oF.

Translating to Celsius, our

maximum ground
temperature for northern
Texas will be . . .

T = 5/9 (F-32) = 5/9 ((62+17)-32) = 26oC

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