Study on Effects of Temperature on Coefficient of Heat Conductivity of Saltwater

In studying the effects of temperature (especially low temperature in deep water) on the coefficient of heat conductivity (CHC) of saltwater, transient hot-wire method was adopted to measure the CHC of 5 kinds of commonly used saltwater at different temperatures (4~60℃). Analyses of the experimental data showed that, at the same salt concentration, CHC changed with temperature in similar pattern, i.e., at low temperatures (4~20℃), CHC increases slowly with temperature; at temperatures above 20℃, CHC increases fast with temperature. At the same temperature, CHC decreases with increase in salt concentration. Saltwater samples from 2 deep water wells were measured in laboratory for their CHC. It was found that CHC of the two samples was only slightly affected by temperature; the differences of CHC at 4℃and 50℃ were 0.036 W/(m·K) and 0.53 W/(m·K), respectively. At temperatures above 40℃, CHC of the two saltwater samples was not affected by changes in temperature.