Temperature-dependent Specific Heats of Dry Soil Materials

Abstract

Specific heat measurements have been made on several soil materials at different temperatures in order to obtain a generalized functional relation between specific heat and temperature. Specific heats were found to vary linearly with temperature from 200 to 300 °K (−73 °C to + 27 °C) and extrapolated close to zero at 0 °K. Consequently, the functional relation between specific heat and temperature for soil materials may be approximated as Cp = mT where Cp is the specific heat, T is the absolute temperature (°K), and m is a proportionality constant. Such a relation permits the prediction of the specific heats at any temperature normally encountered in the field once reliable specific heats have been determined at a single temperature.