Estimation of soils thermophysical characteristics in a nonlinear inverse heat transfer problem.

It is well known that knowledge of thermophysical parameters is a leading strategy to research effects of energy transfer in soils. The present article proposes an inverse analysis for numerical solving of nonlinear heat transfer problem to determine the thermophysical properties of two different soil types: sand and chernozem. First, estimation of thermophysical parameters is performed using temperature data from experimental set-up, which is two-chambered container for two soil types. Second, numerical algorithm is based on implicit Euler scheme for discretization, Newton method to solve nonlinear system of equations and Levenberg-Marquardt method to minimize nonlinear estimator with Tikhonov's regularization technique. Simulations have been efficiently carried out for two different soil types, showing that the reliability of the model is satisfying with a discrepancy between numerical predictions and experimental observations remaining within the measurement error. • Estimation of two soil types thermophysical properties. • Reliability of the model is satisfying. • Experimental set-up is used for parameters estimation. • Sensitivity coefficients by direct differentiation. • Robustness of calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]