959

ARTICLE
Laboratory investigations into convective heat transfer in road
construction materials
Karlis Rieksts, Inge Hoff, Elena Scibilia, and Jean Côté

Abstract: This paper presents a laboratory investigation into natural air convection and the establishment of intrinsic perme-
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ability of road and railway construction materials. The laboratory investigations were performed using a heat transfer cell with
an inner volume of 1 m3. The study shows the importance of natural air convection and a practical method for establishing the
intrinsic permeability of coarse granular materials. Three different open-graded crushed rock materials and two lightweight
aggregates were tested. All materials were tested for downward (conduction only) and upward (convection and conduction) heat
flow conditions. The experimental results revealed that all three crushed rock materials are prone to developing natural air
convection in thermal gradients of 4.5 to 11 °C/m, depending on the particle size distribution. Foam glass aggregates showed a
convective heat transfer flow at the fairly low temperature gradient of 6.5 °C/m. No natural air convection was achieved in
expanded clay aggregates within the temperature gradients imposed. Intrinsic permeability values were established based on
the experimental results. The intrinsic permeability of crushed rock materials ranged from 1.1 to 2.2 × 10−6 m2 while that of foam
glass materials was 0.9 × 10−6 m2.

Key words: natural air convection, intrinsic permeability, road construction materials, crushed rock, lightweight aggregates.

Résumé : Cet article présente une étude en laboratoire sur la convection naturelle de l’air et l’établissement de la perméabilité
intrinsèque des matériaux de construction routière et ferroviaire. Les analyses de laboratoire ont été effectuées à l’aide d’une
For personal use only.

cellule de transfert de chaleur d’un volume intérieur de 1 m3. L'étude montre l’importance de la convection naturelle de l’air et
une méthode pratique pour établir la perméabilité intrinsèque des matériaux granulaires grossiers. Trois différents matériaux
de pierre concassée à granulométrie ouverte et deux agrégats légers ont été testés. Tous les matériaux ont été testés pour les
conditions de flux thermique vers le bas (conduction seulement) et vers le haut (convection et conduction). Les résultats
expérimentaux ont révélé que les trois matériaux de roche concassée sont susceptibles de développer une convection naturelle
de l’air dans des gradients thermiques de 4,5 à 11 °C/m, selon la distribution granulométrique. Les agrégats de verre mousse ont
montré un flux convectif de transfert de chaleur à un gradient de température relativement faible de 6,5 °C/m. Aucune
convection naturelle de l’air n’a été obtenue dans les granulats d’argile expansée à l’intérieur des gradients de température
imposés. Les valeurs de perméabilité intrinsèque ont été établies sur la base des résultats expérimentaux. La perméabilité
intrinsèque des matériaux en pierre concassée variait de 1,1 à 2,2 × 10−6 m2 tandis que celle des matériaux en verre cellulaire était
de 0,9 × 10−6 m2. [Traduit par la Rédaction]

Mots-clés : convection naturelle de l’air, perméabilité intrinsèque, matériaux de construction routière, pierre concassée, granulats
légers.

1. Introduction
Open-graded crushed rock materials are widely used in road
construction in Norway, mainly due to their easy placement, ab-
sence of problems with separation and frost susceptibility, and
very good drainage properties. However, due to their potentially
high intrinsic permeability, natural air convection can substan-
tially increase the rate of heat extraction in transportation em-
bankments during the winter period. During the past few decades
several studies involving coarse, open-graded materials have been
conducted on this physical phenomenon. These include labora-
tory and field investigations as well as numerical model develop-
ments (Côté et al. 2011; Goering 1998; Goering and Kumar 1996).
Studies of convective heat transfer in road and railway structures
have mainly assessed the protective effects of permafrost under-
lying various types of infrastructure (Cheng et al. 2008; Goering and
Kumar 1996; Lai et al. 2004; Li et al. 2006). However, in a seasonally
freezing environment, convective heat transfer may lead to exces-
sive frost penetration depth, in some cases creating local permafrost
conditions (Goering and Kumar 1996; Konrad et al. 2006).
Figure 1 defines the domains for different heat transfer mecha-
nisms as a function of degree of saturation (Sr) and effective par-
ticle diameter (d10) (adopted from Johansen (1975) and redrawn by
Côté et al. (2011)). The domains define the conditions in which a
particular heat transfer mechanism becomes predominant. These
limits are proposed by Johansen (1975) in his study on heat trans-
fer in soils. The different heat transfer mechanisms are (1) conduc-
tion; (2) temperature-driven vapor diffusion, (3) moisture-driven
vapor diffusion; (4) natural water convection; (5) natural air con-
vection; and (6) radiation.
As shown in Fig. 1, the predominant heat transfer mechanisms
in mostly-dry coarse materials are air convection and radiation.

Received 31 July 2018. Accepted 16 July 2019.

K. Rieksts, I. Hoff, and E. Scibilia. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Høgskoleringen 7A, Trondheim, 7491, Norway.
J. Côté. Department of Civil and Water Engineering, Pavillon Adrien-Pouliot, 1065, avenue de la Médecine, Laval University, Quebec City, QC G1V 0A6,
Canada.
Corresponding author: Karlis Rieksts (email: karlis.rieksts@ntnu.no).
Copyright remains with the author(s) or their institution(s). Permission for reuse (free in most cases) can be obtained from RightsLink.

Can. Geotech. J. 57: 959–973 (2020) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2018-0530 Published at www.nrcresearchpress.com/cgj on 14 August 2019.
 960
Fig. 1. Heat transfer mechanisms in soils: (1) conduction; (2) temperature-driven vapor diffusion; (3) moisture-driven vapor diffusion; (4) natural
water convection; (5) natural air convection; (6) radiation (from Côté et al. 2011).
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Several studies have shown the effect of natural air convection on
the increased frost depth (Goering and Kumar 1996; Goering et al.
For personal use only.
2000). In Norway, even for newly build roads, the frost depth has
exceeded the anticipated levels, which could be related to natural
air convection (Seehusen 2011; Tunmo 2010). Therefore, this study
focuses on convective and radiant heat transfer. Because interpar-
ticle radiation is a very complex phenomenon, so as with most of
previous work, this study uses an equivalent heat conduction model
to take the radiation effect into account. Hence, it is important that
all three of these main mechanisms (conduction, convection, and
radiation) are discussed together.
The main objective of this study was to evaluate the heat trans-
fer properties of crushed rock and lightweight aggregates using a
1 m3 heat transfer cell allowing for upward and downward heat
transfer conditions. The more specific objectives were to (i) estab-
lish the effective thermal conductivity and estimate the radiation
component; (ii) establish intrinsic permeability using a method
proposed by Côté et al. (2011); (iii) determine the critical tempera-
ture gradient required to initiate air convection under laboratory
conditions; and (iv) validate the prediction capacity of the Kozeny
(1927) and Chapuis (2004) models.
This paper first presents background on the three heat transfer
mechanisms: conduction, radiation, and convection. The experi-
mental setup and the materials used are then described; the ex-
perimental results of heat transfer by conduction, radiation, and
convection are presented; and the calculated intrinsic permeabili-
ties of materials that allowed convection to occur in laboratory
conditions are compared with other results found in the litera-
ture.
This study is a part of a larger research project on frost protection
for roads and railways (Kuznetsova et al. 2016) at the at Norwegian
University of Science and Technology. The results presented here are
part of a doctoral thesis focusing on the heat transfer properties of
coarse crushed materials.
2. Heat transfer in coarse materials
Laboratory experiments on natural convection involve coupled
heat transfer mechanisms including conduction, radiation, and
convection. To analyze experimental data, knowledge of heat trans-
fer mechanisms involved is necessary. The energy conservation
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020
equation defining the heat transfer for materials in this study as
given by Howell et al. (2010):
⭸T
(1) ⵜ(kcⵜT) ⫹ ⵜqr ⫽ Cs ⫹ CaqaⵜT
⭸t
where kc is the thermal conductivity of the material (W/m°C); ⵜT is
the temperature gradient (°C/m); qr is the radiative heat flux vec-
tor; C is the volumetric heat capacity (J/m3·°C), with the subscripts
“s” and “a” referring to the solid and air phases, respectively; T is
the absolute temperature (K); t is time; and qa is the volumetric
flux vector of air.
The experimental study deals with the analysis of steady-state
heat transfer to establish the intrinsic permeability and effective
thermal conductivity of the studied materials. The following sec-
tions therefore aim at defining the key elements for the analysis
of the experimental results. Section 2.1 presents an effective ther-
mal conductivity model, whereas section 2.2 defines dimension-
less quantities universally used to quantify the magnitude of
steady-state convection. Section 2.3 uses equations from Section
2.2 to establish a method determining the intrinsic permeability.
2.1. Effective thermal conductivity model
Heat transfer by radiation in porous media is a very complex
mechanism. However, in granular material the particles are opaque
and are therefore only affected by the neighboring particles. As a
result, radiation in such conditions can be assumed to be a diffu-
sion process (Xue et al. 2007). Heat transfer by radiation flows in
the same direction as conduction and can therefore also be mod-
eled in the form of Fourier’s law through diffusion approxima-
tion. Hence, effective thermal conductivity (ke) can be expressed
as the sum of pure conduction (kc) and thermal radiation in terms
of equivalent radiant conductivity (kr):
(2) ke ⫽ kc ⫹ kr
where both ke and kr are measured in units of W/m·°C.
Radiation can make a notable contribution only when the pore
size of the material is large enough to induce a substantial tem-
perature difference across the pore space. This is clearly shown in
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 Rieksts et al. 961

a study by Fillion et al. (2011), which demonstrates the effect of Fig. 2. Experimental and analytical Nusselt number – Rayleigh
radiation on dry materials when particle size is increased from sand number relationship (Nu–Ra) for porous media in a square enclosure
to cobble size. Equivalent radiant conductivity can be calculated by heated from below (from Côté et al. 2011).
eq. 3 as stated by Tien (1988):

(3) kr ⫽ 4Ed10␴T3

where E is the exchange factor (dimensionless), d10 is the effective

particle diameter (m), ␴ is Stephan–Boltzmann constant equal to
5.67 × 10−8 W/m2·K4, and T is the mean sample temperature (K).
Numerous empirical equations are available for the approxima-
tion of exchange factor. For this study, the equation proposed by
Argo and Smith (1953) is used, as validated by Fillion et al. (2011) for
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coarse rock materials:

␧
(4) E⫽
(2 ⫺ ␧)

where ␧ is surface emissivity (dimensionless).

The literature provides numerous models for the approxima-
tion of thermal conductivity. This study adopted a model for two-
phase material developed by Côté and Konrad (2009) was adopted
as follows:
where q2 is a downward heat flux (W/m2) (conduction only) from
(␬2pks ⫺ kf)(1 ⫺ n) ⫹ kf the laboratory measurements, and ⵜT is the vertical temperature
(5) kc ⫽ gradient (°C/m) across the test sample.
1 ⫹ (␬2p ⫺ 1)(1 ⫺ n)
For personal use only.

2.2. Natural convection in porous media

where ks and kf are the thermal conductivity of solid and fluid (air) The magnitude of natural convection in porous media can be
expressed by means of the Rayleigh number (Ra) (Nield and Bejan
phases (W/m°C), respectively; n is porosity (dimensionless); and
2013):
␬2p is a structure parameter (dimensionless), defined as

冉 冊
g␤CKH2ⵜT
kf ␸ (10) Ra ⫽
(6) ␬2p ⫽ 0.29 15 ␯ke
ks

where g is the gravitational acceleration (m/s2), ␤ is the thermal

where ␸ is an empirical parameter accounting for structure (dimen- expansion (1/K), C is the heat capacity (J/m3·°C) of the fluid (air), ␯ is
sionless). When the kf/ks ratio is lower than 1/15, Côté and Konrad the kinematic viscosity (m2/s) of the fluid (air), K is the sample
(2009) recommend an empirical value of ␸, which is equal to 0.54 intrinsic permeability (m2), and H is the sample height (m).
for crushed rock material. Upward heat flow may induce convection if the temperature
Substituting kc with eq. 5 and kr with eq. 3 in eq. 2 yields a gradient exceeds a critical value. The ratio between upward and
semi-empirical model for the approximation of effective thermal downward heat fluxes, the Nusselt number (Nu), can be used as an-
conductivity: other means of characterizing the effect of convection (Sun et al.
2005):
(␬2pks ⫺ kf)(1 ⫺ n) ⫹ kf
(7) ke ⫽ ⫹ 4Ed10␴T3 q↑
1 ⫹ (␬2p ⫺ 1)(1 ⫺ n) (11) Nu ⫽
q↓

In the same manner, the contributions of pure conduction and where q1 is the mean upward heat flux (W/m2) (conduction and
radiation can be treated as effective thermal conductivity. Hence, convection) for the same applied temperature gradient.
eq. 1 can be rewritten as follows (Kaviany 1999):
2.3. Calculation of intrinsic permeability based on
⭸T experimental results
(8) ⵜ(keⵜT) ⫽ Cs ⫹ CaqaⵜT
⭸t Conventional experimental methods involving water flow to es-
tablish the intrinsic permeability of coarse, open-graded materials
are mostly inapplicable, because turbulent flows form at a very low
In a configuration where thermal gradients are applied verti-
hydraulic gradient, invalidating Darcy’s law in laboratory condi-
cally, downward heat flow involves conduction heat transfer and, tions (Dudgeon 1966). Côté et al. (2011) have shown that natural air
if the particle sizes are large enough, radiation. Subsequently, convection tests can be used in conjunction with theoretical anal-
Fourier’s law of conduction to compute the effective thermal con- ysis as an alternative method of indirectly establishing the intrin-
ductivity from the experimental results on steady-state downward sic permeability of coarse materials.
heat transfer can be expressed as follows: Schubert and Straus (1979) developed an analytical solution to
convection heat transfer in a square enclosure heated from below
q↓ and proposed a relationship between the Nu and Ra numbers.
(9) ke ⫽
ⵜT Figure 2 shows the Nu–Ra number relationship. The figure also in-

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 962
Fig. 3. Test materials: (a) crushed rock (20/120 mm); (b) foam glass and expanded clay. [Colour online.]
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cludes experimental results from studies by Elder (1967), Kaneko
et al. (1974), Yen (1974), and Combarnous and Bories (1975). The
analytical Nu–Ra relationship agrees fairly well with the experi-
mental data. Natural air convection in the case of a square enclo-
sure heated from below is initiated when Ra values exceed 4␲2.
Below this threshold, the value of Nu is 1.
Côté et al. (2011) proposed a method for the approximation of
intrinsic permeability based on the analytical relationship of
Schubert and Straus (1979), for which they derived the following
empirical equation:
(12) Nu ⫽ 1.735ln (Ra) ⫺ 5.38
For personal use only.
By substituting the Nu number with eq. 11 and the Ra number
with eq. 10 in eq. 12, they demonstrated that experimental heat
flux can be related to intrinsic permeability:
(13)
q↑
q↓
⫽ 1.735ln 冉
g␤CKH2ⵜT
␯ke 冊
⫺ 5.38
Côté et al. (2011) used eq. 13 to best fit experimental data of
convection heat transfer (q–ⵜT relationship) for various heat flow
conditions, allowing the establishment of the intrinsic permeabil-
ity (K) values of various cobble-sized materials. It should be noted
that the analytical solution provided by Schubert and Straus (1979)
is applicable only to strictly two-dimensional air convection within a
square enclosure heated from below. Care should be taken when
analyzing other data where the geometrical setting is other than a
square enclosure or the shape of the convection cell is not strictly
two-dimensional.
Other studies investigating natural air convection simply use
empirical or semi-empirical models to approximate intrinsic perme-
ability (Combarnous and Bories 1975; Kaneko et al. 1974; Yen 1974). In
this study, the estimated K results from two semi-empirical models
were compared with the experimental K values. The models were
derived from hydraulic radius theory (Poiseuille 1844) and are those
of Kozeny (1927) (eq. 14) and Chapuis (2004) (eq. 15), as follows:
C 2 n3
(14) K⫽ d
2 10
f (1 ⫺ n)2
where C/f 2 accounts for tortuosity as well as pore and particle shape,
and for uniformly shaped spheres, it is set to 0.0056, while d10 is
effective particle diameter (m) and n is porosity.
(15) K ⫽ 0.000125␣0.7825
where ␣ is d10
2 3
n /共1 ⫺ n兲2.
The experiments conducted in this study and those of Côté et al.
(2011) are much larger in scale than other studies. For example, in
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020
the study by Combarnous and Bories (1975), the sample height
was ⬃10 cm, while for the study of Kaneko et al. (1974), the
sample dimensions were approximately 45.7 cm × 15.2 cm ×
7.6 cm. As Côté et al. (2011) mention, experimental setups with a
sample height of 1 m could experience increased sensitivity to
external perturbations. From the results of a preliminary analysis,
Côté et al. (2011) suggested to use temperature gradients to target
Ra values of over 100 and thereby minimize perturbations from
the environmental conditions in which the heat transfer cell op-
erates.
3. Materials
In total five different materials were prepared and tested in this
study. The materials included crushed rocks with particle sizes
of 20 to 120, 40 to 120, and 20 to 250 mm (hereinafter referred to as
20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm) and two lightweight aggregates:
expanded clay (Leca) and foam glass (Glasopor). Figure 3 shows
examples of these materials.
The materials were selected based on the national guidelines for
road and railway construction practice in Norway. The 20/120 mm
material was selected because it is a common subbase layer material.
The 40/120 mm material is a custom-made and nonstandard mate-
rial but could potentially be used for frost protection purposes
under current road construction regulations. The 20/250 mm is a
custom-made material and is considered a possible alternative to
the material currently used as subballast in railway-line construc-
tion. All materials had a negligible amount (<20 mm) of fine ma-
terial and relatively large interparticle pores.
Lightweight aggregates are commonly used in Norway for insu-
lation purposes. Based on Handbook N200 (2014), both types of
material tested have approximately the same thermal properties
and are characterized by their low thermal conductivity and low
particle density. Expanded clay is produced by heating clay to
⬃1200 °C in a rotary kiln. Foam glass is produced by sintering
crushed glass powder at a high temperature and under high pres-
sure. During the cooling process, the material naturally cracks
and breaks down into a particles with a size range of 10 to 60 mm.
The material producers specify the dry thermal conductivity of
these materials as 0.10 W/m·°C (Geving et al. 1999).
Figure 4 shows the particle gradation of all five test materials.
All were tested with particle gradation as received from their
producers. The sieving analysis of crushed rock materials was
carried out for a particle range of 20 to 120 mm. Less than 1% of the
material was smaller than 20 mm, and this was considered insig-
nificant for these tests. Figure 4 shows that even though the
40/120 mm material has a lower limit of 40 mm, it contained
about 10% of material finer than that, and so the d10 value was
slightly below the lower limit of 40 mm. The expanded clay with
particle size from 0 to 32 mm was directly from the production
line, with material gradation provided by the producer. The gra-
dation of the foam glass material was determined during this
study. The producer declares that it has a gradation of 10/60 mm;
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 Rieksts et al. 963

Table 1. Mineralogy of crushed rock material.

Albite Diopside Chlorite Calcite Microcline Hornblende Quartz Sphalerite Clinozoisite Biotite Magnesite Epidote
20/120 mm 33% — 13% <1% 4% 4% 36% — — 5% <1% 6%
40/120 mm 33% — 13% <1% 4% 4% 36% — — 5% <1% 6%
20/250 mm 21% 1% 10% <1% 2% 35% <1% <1% 30% — — —
ks (W/m·°C) 1.96 4.93 5.15 3.59 2.49 2.81 7.69 12.73 2.40 2.02 5.10 2.83

Fig. 4. Particle gradation of test materials. Table 2. Material characteristics of test samples after preparation.
Density of Bulk Sample
particles density weight, d10
Material Porosity (kg/m3) (kg/m3) dry (kg) (mm)
20/120 mm 0.45 2788 1535.0 1473.6 29.9
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40/120 mm 0.45 2788 1535.0 1473.6 38.0

20/250 mm 0.40 3027 1823.9 1750.9 28.4
Expanded clay 0.31 458 317.9 305.2 3.3
Foam glass 0.41 380 223.1 317.4 22.9

conductive heat transfer. The second phase involved testing nat-

ural cobbles with particle sizes ranging between 0.09 and 0.21 m
(Rieksts et al. 2017) to validate the heat transfer box for natural air
convection as well as the analysis procedure to establish intrinsic
permeability. This study was the third phase in which various
road construction materials were tested for their convective heat
however, it was found that a negligible amount of the material transfer characteristics. The experimental heat transfer cell is
For personal use only.

was finer that 20 mm, and no particles were larger than 50 mm.
The crushed rocks studied here are of different mineralogical
compositions. The 20/120 and 40/120 mm materials are defined as
slate, while the 20/250 mm material is defined as gabbro. Table 1
gives the complete mineral content of all three materials, together
with their thermal conductivity (from Horai (1971), converted to SI
units by Côté and Konrad (2005)).
The corresponding d10 values were obtained from the grain size
distribution by interpolating between two adjacent sieve sizes. The
equation used to determine the d10 is as follows:
(16) d10 ⫽ SU(Sd⫺PL)/(PU⫺PL)SL(PU⫺Sd)(PU⫺PL)
where SU is the upper sieve size, SL is the lower sieve size, Sd is 10
(material size at which 10% passes through), PU is percentage of
material passing through the upper sieve, and PL is the percentage
of material passing through the lower sieve. The d10 values obtained
for the 20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm material were 29.9, 38.0, and
28.4 mm, respectively. The d10 for expanded clay was 3.3 mm, while
that for foam glass was 22.9 mm.
Table 2 summarizes the samples’ characteristics after prepara-
tion. The total mass of material used for the sample preparation
was carefully controlled. The total volume of each sample was
0.96 m3. The first two crushed rock materials (20/120 and 40/120 mm)
had the same porosity. As permeability is a function of porosity and
d10 (eqs. 14 and 15), the results were expected to clearly show the
effect of increased d10 on air convection through these two mate-
rials. The porosity of the foam glass material was in the same
range as that of the crushed rock materials, while the expanded
clay material had a considerably lower porosity value than any
other material tested in this study. All of the materials except the
expanded clay were tested dry. The volumetric water content de-
termined for the expanded clay material after the test was below
1% of the total sample volume.
4. Experimental procedure
The laboratory experiments were carried out in three phases.
The first phase included tests with pure sand for the validation of
shown in Fig. 5.
The test setup was inspired by previous studies by NGI (1999),
Goering et al. (2000), and Côté et al. (2011). The experimental setup
comprised an insulated box with an inner volume of 1 m3. Figure 6
shows a vertical cross-section of the box (A-A) at the centerline and
a horizontal cross section of the box (B-B) at the heat flux sensor
level. The inner insulation consisted of extruded polystyrene (XPS)
boards (k = 0.034 W/mK) with a total thickness of 115 mm, while
the outer insulation (the shell of the box) consisted of 100 mm
thick polyisocyanurate foam boards (k = 0.023 W/mK). The tem-
perature gradient was controlled by heat exchange plates placed
at the top and the bottom of the sample. The plates consisted of a
double copper tube circuit placed between two aluminum plates.
The space between the tubing was filled with quartz sand to en-
sure thermal stability. The temperature was controlled using two
separate temperature-controlled baths having a temperature
range of 5–40 °C.
Temperature profiles were measured using 45 thermocouples
placed at nine levels in groups of five. The vertical distance between
the thermocouples was 0.16–0.17 m. In each layer, one thermocouple
was placed in the center of the sample while the other four were
placed ⬃0.17 m from each face of the box. The thermocouples were
placed in a way such that they were located below the midpoint of
the heat flux plate. The positions of the thermocouples are de-
picted in Fig. 6. For the tests on crushed rock materials and foam
glass, the thermocouples were directly attached to material parti-
cles with aluminum tape. For the expanded clay material, the
thermocouples were attached to a plastic grid to increase position
accuracy.
To monitor the heat flow, the test setup was equipped with nine
0.3 m × 0.3 m heat flux sensors (Captec Enterprise; see Fig. 5). The
sensors were formed from a series of thermocouples that are sen-
sitive to heat flux. The sensors were placed between 5 mm thick
Plexiglas sheets and laid over the top sand layer. The nine heat
flux sensors accounted for 81% of the sample’s top surface area.
Sand layers were used to minimize thermal resistance between
the heat exchange plates and the test sample. A 2 cm sand layer
was placed at the bottom and a 5 cm sand layer was placed at the
top of the sample. The top sand layer was held in place using a

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Fig. 5. Experimental setup: (a) heat transfer box with temperature-controlled baths; (b) heat flux plate at the top of a sample. [Colour online.]
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Fig. 6. Cross-section of experimental setup.
For personal use only.
geotextile layer to prevent percolation through the much coarser
sample.
The mean experimental error for thermal conductivity values
was estimated at 0.11 W/m·°C, giving good estimates of ke. For the
subsequent establishment of intrinsic permeability given in the
next section, the relative error of K values was also considered low
given that the Nu–Ra relationship is an exact solution.
To initiate a two-dimensional natural air convection flow pat-
tern, a line heat source was placed within the heat transfer cell, at
the bottom edge of the right side of the test box. It consisted of a
metal pipe filled with a circulating fluid heated to 80 °C, using an
independent temperature bath unit. The line heat source was used
merely to initiate convection for upward heat flow conditions; it was
used for up to 24 h, and when it had initiated convection it was
turned off. However, as shown later in this paper, the line heat
source was kept active throughout the entire experiment involv-
ing expanded clay aggregates to promote convection in a material
with lower permeability than the coarser materials.
The tests were executed in two phases. At first, downward heat
flow conditions (heating from top of sample) were applied to the
samples using various thermal gradients. These conditions caused
heat transfer only by conduction together with radiation heat
transfer when the particle size and gradients were large enough.
In the second phase, the heat flow direction was reversed to flow
upwards (heating from bottom of sample) under various temper-
ature gradients to induce natural air convection. The total time
taken to reach a steady state under a single temperature gradient
was about 7 days. Readings were recorded during a 24 h period
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020
after reaching a steady state, and the mean values were computed
(Rieksts et al. 2017).
5. Results
5.1. Downward heat flow and effective thermal conductivity
Figure 7a shows the experimental results of thermocouple mea-
surements of 40/120 mm material with an imposed temperature
gradient of 22.2 °C/m. The sample reached a steady-state condition
after ⬃60 h. The locations of the thermocouples are indicated at
the right-hand side of Fig. 7a. The location +0.02 m corresponds to
the bottom sand layer – sample interface, while the +1.00 m corre-
sponds to the sample–upper sand layer interface. Figure 7a shows
that in each layer the five thermocouples indicated approximately
the same temperature measurement, validating a linear temper-
ature distribution. Figure 7b shows the corresponding heat flux
measurements. As expected, the nine heat flux sensors gave sim-
ilar measurements, confirming a linear temperature gradient.
Figures 8a, 8b, and 8c show the temperature distribution through
20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm materials under downward heat
flow conditions. Each data point is the average value of five ther-
mocouples located at the same height. The 20/120 mm material
was subjected to three different temperature gradients. In Fig. 8a,
some deviations from a linear temperature distribution can be
observed, probably caused by some thermocouple placement in-
accuracy. The same pattern can be observed in all three tempera-
ture gradients. The 40/120 and 20/250 mm materials were
subjected to two different temperature gradients. The tempera-
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 Rieksts et al. 965

Fig. 7. Experimental results for 40/120 mm material at temperature gradient of 22.2 °C/m: (a) thermocouple measurements; (b) heat flux
sensor measurements.
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Fig. 8. Temperature profiles for conduction heat flow conditions: (a) 20/120 mm; (b) 40/120 mm; (c) 20/250 mm; (d) expanded clay; (e) foam
glass.
For personal use only.

ture gradients from these two tests are more linear than the re-
sults of the 20/120 mm material. The expanded clay material was
tested at three different temperature gradients for downward
heat flow as shown in Fig. 8d, which also shows a temperature
distribution for one upward heat flow condition. No convection
was initiated at this temperature gradient of 12.3 °C/m, and it
remained linear. The foam glass material was tested under four
different temperature gradients for downward heat flow condi-
tions as shown in Fig. 8e. A deviation from a linear temperature
gradient was noticeable at a height of 0.68 m; however, this is
assumed to be due to inaccurate thermocouple placement.
Figure 9 shows a compiled q–ⵜT plot of the experimental results
from all five materials. The temperature gradient was calculated
based on the average temperature measurements at the top and
bottom of the sample (locations +1.00 m and +0.02 m in Fig. 7a). An
average heat flux value was calculated based on the measure-
ments of all nine heat flux sensors. Equation 9 was used to estab-
lish the regression line, based on the experimental results. The slope

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 966 Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020

Fig. 9. Experimental q–ⵜT relationships of downward heat flow condition together with regression lines based on eq. 9. The slope of the line
indicates the effective thermal conductivity given on the right side of the figure.
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of the regression line indicates the effective thermal conductivity Table 3. Summary of results of downward heat flow test and com-
(fitting parameter in eq. 9). The established ke for the 20/120, 40/120, puted effective thermal conductivity.
and 20/250 mm materials was 0.54, 0.59, and 0.72 W/m·°C, respec-
Temperature Effective thermal
tively. The experimental results on expanded clay and foam glass
Heat flux gradient conductivity
material yielded ke values of 0.30 and 0.34 W/m·°C, respectively.
Material (W/m2) (°C/m) (W/m·°C)
The ke value for both lightweight aggregates is much higher than
For personal use only.

that found in the literature (Heiersted 1976; Øiseth et al. 2006); 20/120 mm 5.9 11.0 0.54
this is discussed further in Section 6.1. 9.1 17.3
Table 3 summarizes the experimental results together with the 13.5 25.1
established effective thermal conductivity values based on eq. 9. 40/120 mm 5.3 19.3 0.59
13.4 22.2
5.2. Upward heat flow measurements
After the samples were tested for ke, the heat flow direction was 20/250 mm 4.6 6.1 0.72
15.4 22.3
inverted to an upward heat flow to promote natural convection in
a two-dimensional pattern. Figures 10a, 10b, and 10c show typical Expanded clay 3.4 10.1 0.30*
temperature distributions in samples of 20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm 5.7 17.6
materials. The direction of the air convection cell was counterclock- 9.7 32.3
wise looking from the front side of the box, which is indicated by 3.0 12.3
the temperature and heat flux measurements. The temperatures Foam glass 3.6 9.2 0.34*
on the right side of the box are higher due to the ascending air 5.2 15.8
flow, which tends to compress the isotherms in the upper section 7.2 22.1
of the box and separate them in the lower part. The temperature 9.5 30.8
distribution in the midsection of the box (front, center, and back) *See Section 6.1 for discussion.
is roughly the same, confirming a unicellular (two-dimensional)
convection cell pattern. The temperature profile on the left side of addition, a steady state was reached only in the first and last tests.
the box is slightly lower due to the descending air, which results For the other two temperature gradients (10.7 and 14.8 °C/m), the
in decreased temperatures on that side of the box. This in turn convection was unstable, and the direction of the convection air
compresses the isotherms in the lower part of the box and sepa- flow constantly shifted, as explained later.
rates them in the upper section of the box. Figures 11a and 11b show the temperature distribution in the two
Figure 10 also provides the heat flux measurements (in units of foam glass tests, which resulted in a steady-state condition (ⵜT of
W/m2) from all nine heat flux plates (in the locations depicted in 9.4 and 20.6 °C/m). As explained, the first test was conducted
Fig. 6). The general pattern is that the heat flux values decrease without initiating convection with a line heat source. Based on
from the right to the left side of the box. This agrees with the fact the temperature and heat flux measurements, this resulted in a
that the higher heat flux values are on the right side, where up- diagonal air convection pattern (Fig. 11a). A similar convection
ward heat flow occurs. Similarly, the lowest heat flux values occur pattern was observed in the study by Rieksts et al. (2017), where
where the cold air descends on the left side. The heat flux mea- convection was freely initiated in natural cobbles material. The
surements generally confirm the temperature distribution and last test (Fig. 11b) resulted in a steady-state condition. However, the
the direction of air motion. These observations agree well with temperature distribution was rather disrupted. Based on limited
those of Côté et al. (2011). observations, it was difficult to clearly define the direction and
The test on foam glass material showed instabilities in the for- pattern of the air convection cells.
mation of the air convection cell. The material was tested under The other two upward heat flow tests on foam glass material did
four different temperature gradients: 9.4, 10.7, 14.8, and 20.6 °C/m. not result in a steady state. Similarly, the air convection cell was
The first test was initiated without a line heat source, but it was constantly changing shape despite efforts to initiate convection in
induced in the next three tests. The natural air convection cell did the desired direction. Part of the temperature distribution in the
not maintain the two-dimensional pattern in most of the tests. In longest of these two tests is shown in Fig. 12, which shows the

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 Rieksts et al. 967

Fig. 10. Temperature profiles for upward heat flow conditions: (a) 20/120 mm (10.9 °C/m); (b) 40/120 mm (17.8 °C/m); (c) 20/250 mm (15.2 °C/m).
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Fig. 11. Temperature profiles of foam glass material under steady state conditions: (a) ⵜT = 9.40 °C/m; (b) ⵜT = 20.64 °C/m.
For personal use only.

Fig. 12. Temperature distribution through foam glass material at different stages of the test for foam glass material at ⵜT of 10.7 °C/m:
(a) 183 h; (b) 250 h; (c) 367 h.

distribution at different times throughout the test. The total du-
ration of this test was about 20 days, and the line heat source was
used twice during this time. Air convection was initiated at the
beginning of the test and again after five days. Figure 12a (183 h)
shows the temperature distribution at a moment when a two-
dimensional air convection occurred. The temperature distribu-
tion together with the heat flux measurements clearly show an air
flow with a two-dimensional pattern. After that the convection
cell slowly transitioned into a condition resembling a double cel-
lular convection case (Fig. 12b; 250 h). The heat flux readings to-
gether with the temperature distribution show an upward air
flow on the centerline and a downward air flow on two opposite
faces (front and back). At 367 h, the convection had reshaped itself
into a plume-shaped air convection cell with an upward air flow
in the center of the sample and downward air flow on all sides
(Fig. 12c). A similar case was observed by Goering et al. (2000). A
possible explanation for unstable air convection is the effect of
external perturbations due to the low heat capacity of the foam glass
material, which might be sensitive to room temperature variations
or minor temperature fluctuations of the heat exchange plates.
The expanded clay materials were also tested under upward heat
flow conditions. After turning the line source off, the temperature
profile returned to a linear distribution typical of conduction (includ-
ing radiation but not convection). The temperature gradient for the
first test was 12 °C/m (temperature gradient shown in Fig. 7d).
After this test, a combination of upward heat flow conditions with
bottom heating was imposed, with the line heat source turned on
for the entire duration of the test. The primary objective of these
tests was to increase the heating locally to further promote con-
vection and obtain the necessary data for a possible numerical

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 968 Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020

Fig. 13. Temperature profiles of expanded clay material with continuous line heat source: (a) ⵜT = 15.7 °C/m; (b) ⵜT = 23.4 °C/m; (c) ⵜT = 31.0 °C/m.
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Table 4. Experimental results of natural air convection tests.

ⵜT 1q 2q Nu Ttop Tbottom Tavg Kaverage (×10–6)
Material (°C/m) (W/m2) (W/m2) (eq. 8) (°C) (°C) (°C) (m2; eq. 10)
20/120 mm 10.9 13.5 5.8 2.3 18.8 29.5 24.2 1.5
16.4 20.1 8.8 2.7 17.2 33.3 25.2
21.3 36.4 11.4 3.2 16.1 36.9 26.5
40/120 mm 9.0 14.0 5.1 2.6 20.5 29.3 24.9 2.2
17.8 34.5 10.6 3.3 18.7 36.1 27.4
20/250 mm 9.4 5.7 — — 19.6 28.8 24.2 1.1
15.2 16.9 11.0 1.5 17.8 32.7 25.2
For personal use only.

19.9 29.8 14.5 2.1 17.4 37.0 27.2

Foam glass 9.4 3.6 3.2 1.4 19.5 28.7 24.1 0.9
10.7 5.2 3.6 2.0 18.5 29.0 23.8
14.8 7.2 5.0 2.6 14.0 28.5 21.3
20.6 21.8 7.0 3.1 8.0 28.2 18.1
Expanded clay 15.7 4.6 — — 17.0 32.4 24.7 —
23.4 6.5 — — 13.2 36.1 24.6
31.0 8.5 — — 9.6 40.0 24.8

analysis to establish intrinsic permeability. However, air convec-
tion could not be initiated under laboratory conditions even with
the line heat source turned on, which resulted in a temporarily
nonlinear temperature distribution over the sample. In total, ex-
panded clay was tested under three different temperature gradi-
ents with a constantly running line heat source. The temperature
settings for the line heat source remained constant (at 80 °C) while
the temperature of the heat exchange plates was adjusted. The
resulting temperature gradients are depicted in Figs. 13a, 13b, and
13c. The overall results of these tests show only a linear tempera-
ture distribution with a temperature increase on the right side
of the sample due to the line heat source. This resulted in a hori-
zontal temperature gradient with lower temperature on the left
side. The results do not confirm an air flow in the expanded clay
material under these temperature settings. The results for ex-
panded clay could not be used to establish intrinsic permeability.
5.3. Establishing intrinsic permeability
Figures 14a, 14b, 14c, and 14d show the experimental heat flux–
temperature gradient (q–ⵜT) relationship for the 20/120, 40/120,
and 20/250 mm crushed rock and foam glass materials. The exper-
imental data for downward (conduction only) heat flow condi-
tions are depicted with circles, whereas the triangles symbolize
those for upward (conduction and convection) heat flow condi-
tions. The dotted regression line for downward heat flow gives the
ke value. The dashed regression line for upward heat flow is based
on eq. 13 with K as the fitting parameter. The best fit K values for
20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm crushed rock and foam glass are
1.5× 10−6, 2.2× 10−6, 1.1× 10−6, and 0.9× 10−6 m2, respectively.
Table 4 summarizes the experimental results of applying up-
ward heat flow conditions to all of the test materials. The down-
ward heat flux value is calculated based on the average ke for a
particular temperature gradient. Nu values are calculated based
on the experimental data (eq. 11).
6. Discussion
6.1. Effective thermal conductivity
The empirical model given in eq. 7 was used to assess the pre-
diction accuracy and to estimate the contribution of equivalent
radiant conductivity for crushed rock materials. The contribution
of radiation was calculated using eq. 3 with a value of emissivity of
0.9, based on Fillion et al. (2011). The theoretical value of pure
conduction was estimated using eq. 5 with a ks of 3.32 W/m·°C for
the 20/120 and 40/120 mm material and a ks value of 2.85 W/m·°C
for the 20/250 mm material. The ks values were determined in an
associated study by Rieksts et al. (submitted for publication)1. The
theoretical and experimental values are summarized in Table 5,

Rieksts, K., Hoff, I., Scibilia, E., and Côté, J. (Submitted for publication.) Comparison of different methods to assess the thermal conductivity of crushed rock
1

solid particles. [Submitted to International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer.]

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 Rieksts et al. 969

Table 5. Comparison between experimental and theoretical effective conductivity values.

Mean experimental effective Theoretical thermal Theoretical radiant Mean test Theoretical effective
thermal conductivity conductivity, conductivity, temperature conductivity,
Material (W/m·°C) kc (W/m·°C; eq. 5) kr (W/m·°C; eq. 3) (°C) ke (W/m·°C; eq. 7)
20/120 mm 0.54 0.34 0.14 22.3 0.48
40/120 mm 0.60 0.34 0.18 22.0 0.52
20/250 mm 0.73 0.38 0.14 21.0 0.52

Fig. 14. Experimental relationship between heat flux (q) and temperature gradient (ⵜT): (a) 20/120 mm; (b) 40/120 mm; (c) 20/250 mm; (d) foam glass.
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by 197.250.98.54 on 09/10/20
For personal use only.

which shows that the experimental values are higher than theo-
retical ones. This is particularly pronounced for the 20/250 mm
material. However, theoretical values depend on the model being
used, and using a different model for the approximation of ke
would most likely yield a slightly different predicted thermal con-
ductivity value. Nevertheless, theoretical values can give a good
indication of the difference between the 20/120 and 40/120 mm
materials. The porosity and mineralogy of these materials is the
same; therefore, the contribution of conduction is the same
(based on eq. 5) and therefore the differences between these two
materials in terms of ke must arise from the contribution of radi-
ation due to different d10. For the 20/120 and 40/120 mm materials,
the portion of radiant conductivity is 0.14 (d10 = 29.9 mm) and
0.18 W/m·°C (d10 = 38 mm), respectively. This generally confirms
the increase in heat transfer by radiation with increasing d10.
Radiation accounted for 26%–30% of the effective conductivity in
the crushed rock materials used in this study.
The laboratory experiments using the 20/250 mm material gave
the highest ke value of the three crushed rock materials. However,
the theoretical value based on the models accounting for conduc-
tion and radiation was roughly in the same range as those of the
other two materials. Given that some measurement errors exist,
the relative difference between these materials in terms of their ke
values should still be valid. Hence, it is likely that the theoretical
models do not capture the true ke value precisely. This is especially
pronounced with the 20/250 mm material.
As mentioned, the experimental results for the expanded clay
and foam glass material gave overestimated results for ke. The
experimentally measured ke for expanded clay is 0.30 W/m·°C
while that for foam glass is 0.34 W/m·°C. The corresponding val-
ues provided by the material producer are 0.11–0.12 W/m·°C (low
moisture content) and 0.10 W/m·°C (dry). The experimental values
are about three times higher compared with the theoretical ones.
Several factors might contribute to this inconsistency.

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 970
First, the measurements of the lightweight aggregates are in a
relatively low heat flux range compared with the tests with crushed
rock materials. Any measurement errors within this range would
have a large impact on the resulting values. The average value of
the nine heat flux plates was calculated to establish ke. However,
considerable variation between the individual heat flux plates
was observed in the low-range values. For instance, at the lowest
temperature gradient for expanded clay material, the mean heat
flux value was 3.4 W/m2. The difference between the maximum
and minimum measurements was about 25%. For comparison, in
the test with crushed rock material (40/250 mm) the difference
was only 13%, with a mean heat flux of 13.4 W/m2. This suggests
the greater influence of measurement errors in the low heat flux
range. It is possible that smaller-scale experiments on lightweight
aggregates with higher imposed temperature gradients might
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give more consistent measurements.
Another factor influencing ke measurements could be related to
strong resistance to the transfer of heat through the sample com-
pared with through the walls. A rough estimation suggests that
the thermal resistance of the sample had approximately the same
value as that of the box wall. While the test setup might be suit-
able for materials with relatively high conductivity, a physical
limit might be reached when testing insulation materials in an
insulated box. As explained before, the test setup was validated by
running a test with cobble-sized material (Rieksts et al. 2017) and
comparing the results with those obtained from a similar test
setup (Côté et al. 2011). In addition, the current study shows rela-
tively good agreement between the experimental and theoretical
values of crushed rock materials. This clarifies that the issue could
For personal use only.
only apply to the lightweight aggregates. This could be further
investigated by performing numerical simulations to assess the
heat transfer through the box walls. Nevertheless, it is assumed
that this inconsistency in ke values has only a small impact when
defining the critical temperature gradient to induce convection.
As seen in Fig. 14d, the data points agree fairly well with the
regression line based on eq. 13, and the increased heat flux due to
convection is clearly demonstrated. Furthermore, it could be also
assumed that overestimated ke values have only a small influence
on the establishment of intrinsic permeability. It is assumed that
this error, if any, would have an effect on both the upward and the
downward heat fluxes.
Another interesting aspect is the possible difference between
both lightweight aggregates in terms of their ke. Both materials
are assumed to have roughly the same effective thermal conduc-
tivity of 0.1 W/m·°C in a dry state, as stated by material producers.
While the contribution of thermal conduction could possibly be
the same, the radiant heat transfer should be much higher for
foam glass material because of much higher d10. Assuming the
lightweight aggregates has the same emissivity as crushed rock
(␧ = 0.9), this yields kr of 0.01 W/m·°C (d10 = 3.3 mm) for the ex-
panded clay and 0.11 W/m·°C (d10 = 22.9 mm) for foam glass mate-
rial. The computed contribution of radiant heat transfer to the
expanded clay is close to negligible due to low d10. This agrees with
the limits proposed by Johansen (1975) shown in Fig. 1. Further-
more, for the foam glass material, radiant heat transfer alone
yields a value of 0.11 W/m·°C, which is higher than the theoretical
ke of 0.1 W/m·°C. The emissivity of the foam glass material could
be different from that of rocks. Assuming that both of these
materials have the same kc value of 0.1 W/m·°C, the resulting ke
should theoretically be twice as high for foam glass as for ex-
panded clay aggregates; in fact the test results, disregarding the
errors discussed above, show a higher ke for foam glass. In addi-
tion, the foam glass was tested dry compared with expanded clay
with moisture content of 1.3% by volume. The ke for dry expanded
clay should be even lower, supporting the assumption that foam
glass is in fact more conductive. To assess the contribution of
radiation, the material should be tested at a particle size where
radiation would be negligible.
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020
Fig. 15. Test sample temperature and heat flux measurements of
test sample.
6.2. Non-two-dimensional convection
The test setup that was built imposed two-dimensional convec-
tion, primarily to enable the use of the analytical solution by
Schubert and Straus (1979). In the test setup validation process
completed by Rieksts et al. (2017), a diagonal air convection cell
was observed. However, applying the Nu–Ra relationship given in
eq. 12 found good agreement (in terms of K) with the results ob-
tained by Côté et al. (2011) from a two-dimensional convection
test. This shows that eq. 12 could also be applicable to other con-
figurations of air convection cells with reasonable results.
The tests on the foam glass material had an even larger number
of variations in the air convection cell patterns. In total, five differ-
ent air convection cell patterns were observed: (i) two-dimensional
(forced by the line heat source); (ii) diagonal; (iii) double-celled
with an upward air flow on the centerline; (iv) double-celled with
an upward air flow on two opposite walls; (v) plume-shaped with
an upward air flow in the center of the sample. Furthermore, two
tests on foam glass material showed instability in terms of the
direction and number of cells. These tests resulted in an ever-
changing air flow even over a two-week period. All of these com-
plications may suggest that the analytical Nu–Ra relationship
cannot be applied and therefore eq. 12 cannot be used to establish
intrinsic permeability. However, further investigation into the
experimental data, given in next paragraph, shows that the
Nu–Ra given by Schubert and Straus (1979) could be applied to
other arrangements of air convection cells.
The calculation of intrinsic permeability only takes the average
temperature gradient over the specimen and the average heat flux
during the steady state into account. Figure 15 shows the results of
the measured temperature and heat flux over the whole 458 h test
period. Different temperature distributions were shown in Figs. 10a,
10b, and 10c. A closer look at the test results reveals that disregard-
ing the change in temperature distribution within the sample, the
average temperature at the top and the bottom of the sample and
the average heat flux stay fairly constant. Therefore, in terms of
the values used for the subsequent calculations of intrinsic per-
meability, the period after 200 h of testing can be considered a
steady-state condition. The shape and the number of convection
cells in this case have no obvious influence on the results regard-
ing the average heat flux. Hence, it seems reasonable that the test
results could be used to establish intrinsic permeability, disre-
garding these test instabilities.
6.3. Effect of intrinsic permeability and effective thermal
conductivity
Figure 16 shows a compiled plot of q–ⵜT relationships. The x axis
(temperature gradient) has been shortened to the region of the
critical temperature gradients for better distinction between ma-
terials. As Fig. 16 shows, the 40/120 mm material has the lowest
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 Rieksts et al. 971

Fig. 16. Experimental relationship between heat flux and Fig. 17. Influence of d10 on intrinsic permeability.
temperature gradient.
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Fig. 18. Critical temperature gradient as a function of K/ke.

critical temperature gradient (4.5 °C/m), above which convective
heat transfer is induced. The material requiring the highest
temperature gradient is the 20/250 mm material (11 °C/m). The
20/120 mm and foam glass material required a temperature gra-
dient of 6 and 6.5 °C/m, respectively, to initiate convection. The
critical temperature gradient (ⵜTc), together with the air and po-
rous material properties, lead to convection initiation Ra value of
about 40 when computed with eq. 10.
For personal use only.

The experimental results can show the effect of intrinsic permea-

bility with regards to d10. For instance, the 20/120 and 40/120 mm
materials can be easily compared, as they have the same porosity
and very similar ke. First, with a larger d10 value, convective heat
transfer is initiated at a lower critical temperature gradient (d10 =
29.9 mm ¡ 6 °C/m; d10 = 38 mm ¡ 4.5 °C/m). Second, under
upward heat flow conditions (with convective heat transfer), at a
specific temperature gradient, the heat flux value will be higher
with a larger value of d10. Some of the heat flux increase is also
associated with radiation; however, the major increase is due to
larger K values as a result of increased d10.
The effect of d10 on the resulting K is shown in Fig. 17. The plot
2
shows the K values as a function of d10 . The figure is similar to that in
the study by Côté et al. (2011). The experimental results of the study
by Côté et al. (2011) and those of Rieksts et al. (2017) are shown on the
plot. The regression line shows the trend of decreasing K with d10.
However, as the porosity of these materials is not constant, the effect
on K is a combined contribution of porosity and d10. Nevertheless, the
d10 has a significant effect on the intrinsic permeability and the crit-
ical temperature gradient to initiate convection.
The experimental results clearly indicate that with an increased
permeability, the critical temperature gradient to initiate convec-
tion is lower. However, the overall magnitude of convection is
governed by the combined effect of intrinsic permeability and
effective thermal conductivity varying from 0.34 to 0.72 W/m·°C.
This can be seen by comparing the 20/250 mm material and the
foam glass material in Fig. 16. While the 20/250 mm material has
a K value higher than that of the foam glass, it requires a ⵜTc twice
as high to initiate convection. The reason is that heat is more
easily transferred by conduction in crushed rock material com-
pared with foam glass with a relatively low ke. Convective heat
transfer will be triggered at the critical Ra number of 40. Based on
eq. 10, increased K (numerator) requires lower ⵜTc to result in a Ra
number of 40. Conversely, an increase in ke (denominator) re-
quires a higher ⵜTc to arrive at a Ra number of 40. To be able to
show the combined effect of K and ke, both must be related to ⵜTc.
Figure 18 shows the experimental relationship between ⵜTc and
K/ke, and includes data from studies by Côté et al. (2011) and
Rieksts et al. (2017). This clearly shows that the critical tempera-
ture gradient increases with the decreasing K/ke ratio. The critical
temperature gradient assessed in the laboratory or from the rela-
tionship of Fig. 18 could potentially be exploited to evaluate the
potential for convective heat transfer initiation in the field as
illustrated in Rieksts et al. (submitted for publication)2.
In field conditions, K and ke would govern the initiation of air
convection for a given set of environmental conditions (␤, C, ␯,
and ⵜT in eq. 10) and the dimension of the structure (H in eq. 10).
Hence, in terms of thermal properties, materials should be se-
lected based on K and ke. Both of these parameters should have
models that provide good estimates. At the same time, environ-
mental conditions in countries with cold climate can vary consid-
erably. For instance, coastal regions are typically warmer than
inland, and therefore the selection of materials should also consider
the air temperatures to which the structure will be exposed to. For
instance, if exposing 20/250 mm material to environmental condi-
tions results in a ⵜT below the critical value of 11 °C/m, heat transfer
will be limited to conduction only. Field observations and parameter
studies (in terms of ⵜT, K, and ke) would further improve the practice
of selecting material for transportation infrastructure.

2Rieksts, K., Hoff, I., Scibilia, E., and Côté, J. (Submitted for publication.) The presence of natural air convection in road structural layers: comparison
between field observation and numerical model. [Submitted to Cold Regions Science and Technology.]

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 972
Fig. 19. Measured and predicted K–␣ relationships.
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6.4. Comparison between experimental results and
intrinsic permeability in theoretical models
Figure 19 shows a comparison between experimental and pre-
dicted K–␣ relationships (where ␣ is d10 2 3
n /共1 ⫺ n兲2 ). Kozeny (1927)
and Chapuis (2004) models were compared with experimental
values. Figure 19 also provides experimental values from studies
by Johansen (1975), Côté et al. (2011), and Rieksts et al. (2017). The
test conducted by Johansen (1975) was performed on crushed rock
material with a particle gradation of 20/80 mm, while Côté et al.
For personal use only.
(2011) and Rieksts et al. (2017) used natural cobbles with a particle
diameter of 75 to 205 mm.
As noted, the theoretical models of Kozeny (1927) and Chapuis
(2004) were developed based on much finer soils, for which both
models yield roughly the same result (␣ range from 10−8 to 10−6).
However, when these models are extended to the K value range of
coarse materials (␣ range from 10−4 to 10−2), the difference between
results increases to one order of magnitude with the same value of
␣. If the calculation of convective heat transfer is based on intrin-
sic permeability obtained using one or the other model, it could
be different by one order of magnitude.
The comparison between the experimental results in Fig. 19
shows a noticeable difference between natural and crushed rock
materials. The K values for all materials were obtained using the
same method. This rules out the possibility of a major error occur-
ring from different ways of defining K. Comparing the two groups of
materials (crushed and natural), it can be seen that crushed materi-
als, with lower values of ␣ (f(n, d10)), have only slightly lower K values.
This suggests the possibility of a shape effect on intrinsic perme-
ability; however, Côté and Konrad (2009) studied the effect of
particle shape and demonstrated that angular versus rounded
particles have a noticeable effect only in the case of fine materials.
Given that the pore size of coarse materials is relatively large,
particle shape should not have a major influence on fluid flow.
However, since natural convection is a two-dimensional phenom-
enon, particle shape and alignment of crushed rock could poten-
tially introduce anisotropy. As the particles naturally align in the
horizontal direction, horizontal permeability can be higher than
vertical permeability, which would in turn have an effect on the
experimental Nu–Ra relationship (Wooding 1976). This leaves
room for further validation of these two types of materials.
Generally, the intrinsic permeability values for crushed rock
materials obtained using the method proposed by Côté et al. (2011)
agree fairly well with the theoretical values of the Kozeny–Carman
model, and the values of K for natural materials (cobbles) lie some-
where between the two. The analytical solution proposed by
Schubert and Straus (1979) for two-dimensional convection within
a square enclosure heated from below is an idealized case. This
means not only that the shape of the specimen should be square,
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 57, 2020
Fig. 20. Experimental Nusselt number – Rayleigh number
relationship (Nu–Ra) for different materials.
but also that the thermal conditions should be adiabatic, meaning
that they are perfectly insulated against their surroundings. This
is not the case in laboratory experiments. In addition, Côté et al.
(2011) mention the effect of increased external perturbations on
Ra values below 100. In conclusion, any deviation from the ideal-
ized box will change the Nu–Ra relationship and subsequently the
values of intrinsic permeability calculated based on the Nu–Ra
relationship. However, as this study has shown, application of the
analytical Nu–Ra relationship could possibly be extended to other
geometries, shapes, and numbers of convection cells.
Figure 20 shows the experimental Nu number values together
with the recalculated Ra number values. The Ra number values
here are based on the best-fit K values and calculated using eq. 10.
The figure shows that the data points are scattered around the
analytical Nu–Ra relationship proposed by Schubert and Straus
(1979) with negligible effect. The reasons for this scatter are two-
fold. First, measurement errors are affecting the final K values,
especially in the low heat flux range. Second, the Nu–Ra number
relationship in the test setup will be different from that given by
Schubert and Straus (1979) due to the slightly different geometry,
imperfections in the wall insulations, and the boundary condi-
tions imposed on the sand–sample interface. Numerical model-
ling would be helpful to further validate the experimental results,
obtain the real Nu–Ra relationship for experimental setup, and
establish the adjusted K values.
7. Conclusion
In seasonally freezing environments, natural air convection in
coarse–open-graded materials can substantially increase the rate
of heat extraction from road and railway structures. In Norway, a
broad spectrum of construction materials is used, including very
coarse materials with open-graded pore spaces that are poten-
tially prone to natural air convection. This study investigates the
heat transfer characteristics of three crushed rock materials with
different particle gradations (20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm) and
two lightweight aggregates: 0/32 mm expanded clay (Leca) and
10/60 mm foam glass (Glasopor). Laboratory experiments were com-
pleted using a heat transfer cell with an inner volume of 1 m3. All
materials were subjected to upward and downward heat flow con-
ditions to determine their effective thermal conductivity (ke), crit-
ical temperature gradients (ⵜTc), and intrinsic permeability (K).
The experimentally determined effective thermal conductivity
for the 20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm crushed rock materials showed
that ke increased with particle diameter with values of 0.45, 0.59, and
0.72 W/m·°C, respectively. For the expanded clay, ke was equal to
0.30 W/m·°C, while for foam glass it was 0.34 W/m·°C. The analy-
ses revealed that radiation has a relatively high effect on the ef-
Published by NRC Research Press
 Rieksts et al.
fective thermal conductivity, which has to be accounted for when
establishing the intrinsic permeability K.
The experimental results showed that all three crushed rock
materials are prone to convective heat transfer in laboratory con-
ditions at fairly low temperature gradients. Free air convection was
initiated at the critical temperature gradients ⵜTc of 6.0, 4.5, and
11.0 °C/m in the 20/120, 40/120, and 20/250 mm materials, respec-
tively. Natural air convection was also initiated in foam glass ma-
terial above ⵜTc equal to 6.5 °C/m. Convection could not be
induced in expanded clay with bottom heating using the temper-
ature gradients applied in this study, meaning that ⵜTc would
exceed the experimental setup capacity, and thus K could not be
established for this specific material.
The K values of the tested materials were established using a
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by 197.250.98.54 on 09/10/20
method proposed by Côté et al. (2011) for the crushed rock and
foam glass materials. The K values of the crushed rock materials
tested in this study varied between 1.1 and 2.2 × 10−6 m2, while it
was 0.9 × 10−6 m2 for the foam glass. Overall, the experimental values
were in close agreement with values obtained using the Kozeny–
Carman model. However, a noticeable difference in K values was
observed between crushed (including foam glass) and natural ma-
terials, with higher K values in crushed materials with the same
porosity and d10 than in natural materials. It was assumed that
particle shape, potentially inducing anisotropy, could have a cer-
tain effect on coarse materials. This invites further validation of
the intrinsic permeability of crushed and natural materials.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Research Council of Norway (grant
For personal use only.
246826/O70) for funding this study, as well as the Norwegian Public
Road Administration and Norwegian National Rail Administra-
tion. The authors also thank the lab technicians Bent Lervik and
Jan Erik Molde for their technical support and assistance, as well
as Markus Erik, Mathis Dahl Fenre, and especially Zahra Rahimi
for their great help with preparing the samples.
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