Many engineering problems require calculations of heat flow through the ground. Such problems as (a) performing a heating load calculation for a basementless house, (b) estimating the heat exchange between the ground and a cold storage building, (c) calculating the current carrying capacity of buried cables, and (d) determining heat losses from underground steam pipes or hot water lines, require a knowledge of the thrmal conductivity of the soil for their solution. Yet, despite the need for accurate thermal conductivity data and the wide use of existing data, the mechanisms by which heat is transferred through soils, especially when moist, are not completely understood. Nor is there agreement as to the most appropriate method by which the soil conductivity should be measured.
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Woodside et al. (1959) studied this question.