The Thermal Conductivity of Oil Sands Using a Transient Method

Measurements have been made of the effective thermal conductivity of some samples of oil sands using a transient technique over the relatively wide temperature range of −100°C to 200°C at atmospheric pressure. These results included samples in which the bitumen content was deliberately altered from the natural values. The thermal conductivity values tended to increase as the temperature was lowered. However, these values were relatively unaltered in the temperature range below 0°C. The thermal conductivity values appear to be influenced by variation in the oil content of the sample and whether the sample was from naturally occurring oil sands or artificially prepared with the same nominal oil concentration in the sand.