A Novel Temperature Estimation Model for Limestone Soil

Abstract

Received: 11 July 2019 Accepted: 20 August 2019 This paper designs a novel estimation model for the temperature of limestone soil, which is abundant in Ghardaia in the Sahara of Algeria. The model was developed based on the radial basis function (RBF), and used to predict soil heat based on two inputs, namely, air temperature and solar radiation. The raw data were collected over more than three years by a meteorological station in the study area. For comparison, the soil temperature was also measured by soil probes arranged at an equal interval. The soil heat predicted by our model based on the raw data were contrasted with the results of field measurement. On this basis, the thermal comfort range of limestone soil for air-conditioning systems was determined. The results show that our model can effectively estimate the temperature of limestone soil in the study area, the thermal comfort range of limestone soil falls between 17.43°C and 29.90°C at the depth of 0.40m, and the temperature near the soil surface (<5m) has seasonal variations.