Numerical modeling of thermal response of a ground heat exchanger with single U-shaped tube

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 525-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenxin Li ◽  
Jingliang Dong ◽  
Yong Wang ◽  
Jiyuan Tu
2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (01) ◽  
pp. 1750006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keun Sun Chang ◽  
Min Jun Kim ◽  
Young Jae Kim

In recent years, application of the standing column well (SCW) ground heat exchanger (GHX) has been noticeably increased as a heat transfer mechanism of ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems with its high heat capacity and efficiency. Determination of the ground thermal properties is an important task for sizing and estimating cost of the GHX. In this study, an in situ thermal response test (TRT) is applied to the thermal performance evaluation of SCW. Two SCWs with different design configurations are installed in sequence to evaluate their effects on the thermal performance of SCW using a single borehole. A line source method is used to derive the effective thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance. Effects of operating parameters are also investigated including bleed, heat injection rate, flow rate and filler height. Results show that the effective thermal conductivity of top drawn SCW (Type A) is 11.7% higher than that of bottom drawn SCW (Type B) and of operating parameters tested bleed is the most significant one for the improvement of the thermal performance (40.4% enhanced in thermal conductivity with 10.9% bleed).


Author(s):  
Balaji Kumar

Abstract The research collection aims at finding the various possible opportunities for the effective integration of shallow geothermal energy (SGE) to decrease the energy demand in the built environment and to reduce emission associated with it. The integration of SGE with heat pump using pipe network is extensively reviewed. The open loop and closed loop (vertical, horizontal, energy piles) pipe networks are the most common type of ground heat exchanging methods. The objective of the review is to improve the heat exchanger effectiveness through various design aspects according to the local climatic conditions. This comprehensive review part II contains the research details pertaining to the last two decades about ground heat exchangers (geometrical aspects, borehole material, grout material, thermal response test, analytical and numerical models). Also, the factors influencing the ground heat exchanger's performance such as heat transfer fluid, groundwater flow, and soil properties are discussed in detail. This paper highlights the recent research findings and a potential gap in the ground heat exchanger.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang Bae ◽  
Yujin Nam ◽  
Jong Choi ◽  
Kwang Lee ◽  
Jae Choi

A ground source heat pump (GSHP) system has higher performance than air source heat pump system due to the use of more efficient ground heat source. However, the GSHP system performance depends on ground thermal properties and groundwater conditions. There are many studies on the improvement of GSHP system by developing ground heat exchanger (GHX) and heat exchange method. Several studies have suggested methods to improve heat exchange rate for the development of GHX. However, few real-scale experimental studies have quantitatively analyzed their performance using the same ground conditions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the thermal performance of various pipe types of GHX by the thermal response test (TRT) under the same field and test conditions. Four kinds of GHX (HDPE type, HDPE-nano type, spiral fin type, and coaxial type) were constructed in the same site. Inlet and outlet temperatures of GHXs and effective thermal conductivity were measured through the TRT. In addition, the borehole thermal resistance was calculated to comparatively analyze the correlation of the heat exchange performance with each GHX. Result of the TRT revealed that averages effective thermal conductivities of HDPE type, HDPE-nano, spiral fin type, and coaxial type GHX were 2.25 W/m·K, 2.34 W/m·K, 2.55 W/m·K, and 2.16 W/m·K, respectively. In the result, it was found that the average borehole thermal resistance can be an important factor in TRT, but the effect of increased thermal conductivity of pipe material itself was not significant.


Author(s):  
Quan Liao ◽  
Yongxiang Fan ◽  
Xiaobo Zhu ◽  
Jintang Li

Abstract Based on four-thermal-resistance-capacitance network within a borehole, an improved thermal-resistance-capacitance model (TRCM), which takes into account the effect of nonuniform temperature distribution along the borehole perimeter, is proposed for vertical single U-tube ground heat exchanger. For a given geometric and physical parameters of ground heat exchanger, the numerical simulations of the conventional TRCM based on three-thermal-resistance-capacitance network within borehole, the improved TRCM based on four-thermal-resistance-capacitance network within borehole and three-dimensional (3D) finite volume computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model by using fluent software were conducted, respectively. Through the comprehensive comparisons of simulation results between these above-mentioned three models for vertical single U-tube ground heat exchanger, it could be concluded that the proposed improved TRCM could not only provide relatively high accurate results, but also remarkably decrease the solving time as compared to the benchmark 3D finite volume CFD model. Since the proposed TRCM has better performance than the one based on three-thermal-resistance-capacitance network within borehole and 3D finite volume CFD model, a new reliable and feasible TRCM for vertical single U-tube ground heat exchanger could be available for the design and optimization of ground heat exchanger, the data interpretation of thermal response test (TRT) and other applications of ground heat exchanger in real industrial engineering.


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