http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/index.asp 167 editor@iaeme.com International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET) Volume 8, Issue 2, February 2017, pp. 167–175 Article ID: IJMET_08_02_020 Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=8&IType=2 ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359 © IAEME Publication SIMULATION OF SOIL TEMPERATURE VARIATION FOR GEOTHERMAL APPLICATIONS Raviranjan Kumar Singh Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, N.I.T. Jamshedpur, India R.V. Sharma Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, N.I.T. Jamshedpur, India ABSTRACT This paper aims to predict ground temperature variation with depth for time variant ambient air temperature and solar radiation data for Jamshedpur, India. Fourier series and CFD techniques have been employed to determine diurnal and annual temperature variation for the hottest and the coldest day of the year 2015.The diurnal temperature variation is up to 0.2m depth of soil whereas annual temperature variation is up to 3m depth. Key words: Soil temperature; CFD Simulation; Fourier series. Cite this Article: Raviranjan Kumar Singh and R.V. Sharma. Simulation of Soil Temperature Variation for Geothermal Applications. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 8(2), 2017, pp. 167–175. http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=8&IType=2 NOMENCLATURE α Thermal Diffusivity of soil (m 2 /s) k Thermal conductivity of soil (W/mK) α 0 Absorptivity of solar radiation at the surface T Soil temperature (K) c Specific heat(J/kgK) T a Air temperature (K) ε Emissivity of soil surface T e Effective temperature (K) h Convective heat transfer coefficient on the soil surface (W/m 2 K) t Time (s) ΔR Long-wave radiation (W/m 2 ) ω 2П/period (rad/s) ρ Density of ground (kg/m 3 ) y Vertical axis (m) S Intensity of solar radiation (W/m 2 ) m Number of terms of Fourier series 1. INTRODUCTION Prediction of soil temperature has important applications such as the passive heating and cooling of buildings and agricultural greenhouses. For design of earth-to-air heat exchangers it is necessary to know the ground temperature at different depths. The air temperature and solar radiation are the main meteorological parameters to change the regular periodic variation in thermal regime of the soil. Soni et al. [1] presented excellent review of research in the area of earth air heat exchangers.