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Analysis of the Performance of an Improved Soil Heat Flux Transducer¹

ABSTRACT

Soil heat flux plates, made of a thermopile wound on a glass microscope slide, sandwiched between two anodized aluminum sheets were calibrated in a box designed to provide one-dimensional heat flow of known flux density. The medium in the box consisted of various air dry soil separates of different texture and thermal conductivity. Calibrations were repeated under field conditions with two levels of soil moisture content. The variation of the sensitivity of each individual aluminum and glass heat flux plate in the different media was less than ±5% from the average, whilst the departure from the ideal sensitivity did not exceed 7%. Under the same experimental conditions the variation of the sensitivity of a commercial heat flux transducer made of low thermal conductive material was near ±15%, and differed by as much as 48% from the ideal value. The largest source of error was found to be the resistance to heat flow which appears at the contact between the soil and the transducer.

¹ Contribution from The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan, Israel. 1972 Series No. 2134-E.

² Agricultural Meteorologist and Soil Physicist, respectively, Agr. Res. Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel.

Received for publication June 14, 1972. Accepted for publication December 11, 1972.