Heat and Mass Transfer in Moist Soil, Part II. Application to Predicting Thermal Signatures of Buried Landmines

Abstract

The finite-volume-based numerical procedure for unsteady heat and moisture transport in soil developed in a companion article [1] is used to study the surface thermal signature of buried landmines in moist soil. The effect of soil type, soil moisture content, mine type, and mine burial depth on the thermal contrast at the soil surface is analyzed over a diurnal cycle. Predictions are presented in the form of spatial and temporal profiles of temperature, matric potential, and surface thermal contrast. Results reveal that the thermal contrast at the surface becomes weaker as the burial depth increases. For shallowly buried mines (i.e., buried at a depth of less than 2 cm), there is an optimum matric potential or moisture content value that maximizes the thermal contrast at the soil surface, with this value being highly dependent on the type of soil and/or mine. Varying the mine burial depth and/or soil moisture content changes the time of the day at which this maximum thermal contrast occurs.

Financial support provided by the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research (LNCSR) through Grant LCR-11304-002208 and by Mr. Youssef Jameel through Grant DCU 113010-024021 is gratefully acknowledged.