An Inverse Method for Estimating Thermal Properties Based on Refining Initial Interval of Probe Spacing.

Abstract Probe spacing plays a key role in determining thermal properties and water flux in soil and hydrological science. Probe deflection is a common phenomenon which results in errors in heat capacity (c) estimation. In order to obtain precise probe spacing, we proposed an inverse method which refining the initial interval of probe spacing based on the relative position of temperature sensors and the deflected shape of the temperature probe. The experiments which conducted under coplanar (linear and nonlinear) and non-coplanar deflection and in two soil samples verified the new method significantly improve the precise of c estimation compared with the previous methods.