Measure Soil Ice Density and Thermal Properties by Dual-Probe Heat Pulse Method.

Measuring the soil ice density (¦Ñi), thermal conductivity (¦Ë) of frozen soil is important for modeling the energy and water balance of the earth surface. The objective of this research is to introduce the Dual-Probe Heat Pulse (DPHP) method for measuring soil ice density as well as thermal properties ¦Ë. To avoid melting, DPHP experiments with 60-s heat pulse duration and variable strength of q¡ä < 25 W m¨C1 were carried out on frozen soils at various temperatures. For water saturated sand of grains size 0.3 mm and 2 mm, there are good agreements between the DPHP measured ¦Ñi and that of gravimetrically measured ¦Ñi at temperature below -18 oC. Above that temperature, the melting phase change associated with depression freezing temperature will lead to overestimation of ¦Ñi.