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Annals of the Assembly for International Heat Transfer Conference 13

ISBN 1-56700-225-0 / CD 1-56700-226-9

Volumes per year:

various

Year 2006

DOI: 10.1615/IHTC13.p5

NUMERICAL PREDICTION OF THERMAL SIGNATURE OF BURIED LANDMINES IN MOIST SOIL

F. Moukalled
American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Nesreen Ghaddar
American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Y. Saleh
American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

ABSTRACT

An unsteady two-dimensional model of heat and mass transfer through soil is implemented within a finite volume-based numerical method. The model uses temperature and matric potential (ψ as the dependent variables. A partial elimination algorithm is applied within the iterative solution procedure to increase its implicitness and improve its robustness. The model 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. Results reveal that the thermal contrast at the surface becomes weaker as the burial depth increases. For shallowly buried mines, there is an optimum moisture content value that maximizes the thermal contrast, 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 occurs.