The Effect of Groundwater Flow on the Thermal Performance of a Novel Borehole Heat Exchanger for Ground Source Heat Pump Systems: Small Scale Experiments and Numerical Simulation

New small-scale experiments are carried out to study the effect of groundwater flow on the thermal performance of water ground heat exchangers for ground source heat pump systems. Four heat exchanger configurations are investigated; single U-tube with circular cross-section (SUC), single U-tube with an oval cross-section (SUO), single U-tube with circular cross-section and single spacer with circular cross-section (SUC + SSC) and single U-tube with an oval cross-section and single spacer with circular cross-section (SUO + SSC). The soil temperature distributions along the horizontal and vertical axis are measured and recorded simultaneously with measuring the electrical energy injected into the fluid, and the borehole wall temperature is measured as well; consequently, the borehole thermal resistance (Rb) is calculated. Moreover, two dimensional and steady-state CFD simulations are validated against the experimental measurements at the groundwater velocity of 1000 m/year with an average error of 3%. Under saturated conditions without groundwater flow effect; using a spacer with SUC decreases the Rb by 13% from 0.15 m·K/W to 0.13 m·K/W, also using a spacer with the SUO decreases the Rb by 9% from 0.11 m·K/W to 0.1 m·K/W. In addition, the oval cross-section with spacer SUO + SSC decreases the Rb by 33% compared with SUC. Under the effect of groundwater flow of 1000 m/year; Rb of the SUC, SUO, SUC + SSC and SUO + SSC cases decrease by 15.5%, 12.3%, 6.1% and 4%, respectively, compared with the saturated condition.