Mapping of the soil thermal condctivity of Bavaria

Abstract

Soil thermal conductivity is an important property for determining the heat extraction potential of ground heat exchangers. Over the last 50 years, many soil scientists have measured the thermal conductivity of soils, and have developed models for predicting the soil thermal conductivity. Using a couple of models commonly used in engineering and soil science, we create a soil thermal conductivity map of Bavaraia in the scale of 1:25.000. Mapping of the soil thermal conductivity will give us a overview of the suitability of regions for horizontal ground source heat pumps. We also show the measurements of thermal conductivitiy of several Bavarian solis, and we discuss the reliability of the soil thermal conductivity predicted from the models in comparison with the measurements.