Datasets described herein belong to chapter 4: Engineered Soil: Saturated Granular Mixtures.
As part of a PhD thesis: Physical Properties of Geomaterials with Relevance to Thermal Energy Geo-systems
By Shahrzad Roshankhah
May 2015
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This readme file describes the data excel file named:
Roshankhah-2015-Physical Properties of Geomaterials-CH4-Engineered Soils- Mass Density & Thermal Conductivity vs. Stress, GSD, Pore Fluid
It has 4 sheets:
 The sheet named “Dry” presents the evolution of thermal conductivity and mass density of dry binary mixtures with stress.
 The sheet named “Water-saturated” presents the evolution of thermal conductivity and mass density of water-saturated binary mixtures with stress.
 The sheet named “Thermal Grease-saturated” presents the evolution of thermal conductivity and mass density of thermal grease-saturated binary mixtures with stress.
 The sheet named “Model” presents the comparison between measured and calculated (based on the proposed model and three common averaging relationships) thermal conductivity of binary mixtures in dry and water-saturated conditions.
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This file contains processed data for the evolution of thermal conductivity and mass density of following binary mixtures of silica sand (45/60) and silica flour saturated with various fluids (air, water, thermal grease) and under variable vertical stress:
 100% silica sand
 90% silica sand + 10% silica flour
 80% silica sand + 20% silica flour
 70% silica sand + 30% silica flour
 60% silica sand + 40% silica flour
 50% silica sand + 50% silica flour
 40% silica sand + 60% silica flour
 30% silica sand + 70% silica flour
 20% silica sand + 80% silica flour
 10% silica sand + 90% silica flour
 100% silica flour
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No acronym/abbreviation has been used. 
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All parameters have been shown in columns by their full title and SI units including:
Thermal conductivity k [W.m-1.K-1]
Stress σ’ [kPa]
Mass Density ρ [kg.m-3]
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Settlement gauge (LVDT, Trans-TEK) resolution: infinite
Temperature gauge (Thermocouple type E) resolution: 0.01 ˚C
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Experiments were conducted at room temperature under variable vertical effective stress and zero lateral strain.
Agilent datalogger 34970A was used to record the temperature evolution over time by the built in thermocouple inside the thermal needle probe during vertical loading and unloading.
 A short (2 minutes) heat pulse (2 V) was imposed at every stress level by a DC power supply E3630A to the heating wire located inside the thermal needle probe.
Agilent datalogger 34970A was used to record the settlement of specimen by means of voltage difference created in the LVDT.
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Dada reduction for thermal conductivity k [W.m-1.K-1] has been done using the slope of the linear part of temperature T [˚C] vs. logarithm of time log(t/1[s]) and the imposed power per unit length of heating wire Q=VI/L [W.m-1] based on the following equation:
k=Q/4π  (log⁡(t_2⁄t_1 ))/(T_2-T_1 )
Data reduction for mass density ρ [kg.m-3] has been done by measuring the settlement of the specimen δ [m], specimen mass m [kg], specimen initial height Ho [m], specimen diameter D [m]:
ρ=m/(π/4 D^2 (H_o-δ) )
A linear model was proposed for the variation of the mass density versus stress as follows:
ρ=ρ_100 [1+χ log⁡(σ^'/1kPa)]
Where, ρ100 [kg.m-3] is the mass density at 100 kPa and χ is the increase in mass density per 10-fold increase in vertical stress.
A linear model was proposed for the variation of the thermal conductivity versus stress as follows:
k=k_1 [1+β log⁡(σ^'/1kPa)]
Where, k100 [W.m-1.K-1] is the thermal conductivity at 100 kPa and β is the increase in thermal conductivity per 10-fold increase in stress.
A model is proposed for the thermal conductivity of any binary mixture with its known parameters for evolutional trend of mass density and thermal conductivity with stress:
k=k_100 [1+β/χ×(ρ-ρ_100)/ρ_100 ]
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The thermal needle probe used to measure the thermal conductivity was calibrated by a stabilized water specimen based on ASTM Standard 5334, 2008 (kw = 0.6 W.m-1.K-1).
The thermal conductivity of the thermal grease was measured using the same thermal needle probe device (ktg = 1.1 W.m-1.K-1).
The LVDT used to measure the settlement of the specimen was calibrated by a Nike precise x-y coordinate.
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Microsoft excel was used to analyze the data.