Experimental Analysis of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchanger for Northern Tunisia

The aim of this study is first to evaluate the Tunisian geothermal energy and second to test the performance of horizontal ground heat exchanger. An experimental set-up has been constructed for climatic condition of Borj Cedria located in the north of Tunisia for space cooling. Results obtained during experiment were presented and discussed. The ground temperature at several depths was measured, the overall heat transfer coefficient (U) was determined. To evaluate the system efficiency, the energy analysis was applied;the energy efficiency was found to range from 14% to 28%. The heat exchange rate was quantified, the pressure losses were calculated. The total heat rejected by using the ground heat exchanger (GHE) system was compared to the total cool requirements of a tested room with 12 m2 surface. The results showed that the GHE, with 25 m of length buried at 1 m depth, covers 38% of the total cool requirement of the tested room. This study showed that the ground heat exchanger provide a new way of cooling buildings, it also showed that Tunisia have an important thermal potential. This favorable circumstance allows Tunisia to be a pioneer in the exploitation of geothermal energy for the installation of ground source heat pump systems.

Soil Nature Effect Investigation on the Ground-to-Air Heat Exchanger for the Passive Cooling of Rooms

The building sector consumes much energy either for cooling or heating and is associated to greenhouse gas emissions. To meet energy and environmental challenges, the use of ground-to-air heat exchangers for preheating and cooling buildings has recently received considerable attention. They provide substantial energy savings and contribute to the improvement of thermal comfort in buildings. For these systems, the ground temperature plays the main role. The present work aims to investigate numerically the influence of the nature of soil on the thermal behavior of the ground-to-air heat exchanger used for building passive cooling. We have taken into account in this work the influence of the soil nature by considering three types of dry soil: clay soil, sandy-clay soil and sandy soil. The mixed convection equations governing the heat transfers in the earth-to-air heat exchanger have been presented and discretized using the finite difference method with an Alternate Direction Implicit (ADI) scheme. The resulting algebraic equations are then solved using the algorithm of Thomas combined with an iterative Gauss-Seidel procedure. The results show that the flow is dominated by forced convection. The examination of the sensitivity of the model to the type of soil shows that the distributions of contours of streamlines, isotherms, isovalues of moisture are less affected by the variations of the nature of soil through the variation of the diffusivity of the soil. However, it is observed that the temperature values obtained for the clay soil are higher while the sandy soil shows lower temperature values. The values of the ground-to-air heat exchanger efficiency are only slightly influenced by the nature of the soil. Nevertheless, we note a slightly better efficiency for the sandy soil than for the sandy-clayey silt and clayey soils. This result shows that a sandy soil would be more suitable for geothermal system installations.

Research on single hole heat transfer power of ground source heat pump system

In this paper,the single hole heat transfer power of the ground source heat pump system in Hengshui is compared with data gained from thermal response test.The results show that maximum monitoring data of heat transfer power per meter in summer is 97.1% of the test data,and the average value accounts for 81.8%.The per meter heat power data through on-site thermal response test can provide references for designing engineering project and optimizing ground source heat pump system as these data do not vary greatly from the actual monitoring data.

Arrangement Strategy of Ground Heat Exchanger with Groundwater

The orientation strategy of side pipe and the heat transfer performance of six ground heat exchangers(GHEs) were optimized by numerical simulation,with soil being treated as a porous medium.An experiment on the heat transfer of four GHEs was carried out in 2010.Results indicate that the velocity field is disturbed by GHEs.The optimal orientation strategy of side pipe is that the upward pipe is located upstream and the downward pipe downstream.The space between GHEs should be appropriately adjusted,depending on the direction and flow velocity.Groups of GHEs should be installed perpendicular to the mainstream in a single row,but if the acreage does not meet the requirements,GHEs should be installed in staggered multiple rows.Fewer GHEs parallel to the mainstream strengthen the heat transfer.Moreover,numerical results agree well with the test data,with the maximum relative error being less than 7.7%.

Experimental Investigation on System with Combination of Ground-Source Heat Pump and Solar Collector

This paper presents the heating performance and energy distribution of a system with the combination of ground-source heat pump and solar collector or a solar-assisted ground-source heat pump system (SAGSHPS) by calculation and experiment.The results show that the average absolute error is less than 0.6 ℃ and the relative error is less than 5% under the pulse load when the analytical solution to the 2-D solid cylindrical source model is used for the SAGSHPS.The coefficient of performance (COP) of the SAGSHPS is 2.95-4.70.The average fluid temperature in the borehole heat exchanger can increase by 3 ℃ with the assistance of solar collector,which will improve the COP of the heat pump by approximately 10% from the experimental data.The energy contributions to the total heating load of soil,electricity and solar are 56.30%,36.87% and 6.83%,respectively.

Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer Characteristics of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchanger in Frozen Soil Layer

A simplified numerical model of heat transfer characteristics of horizontal ground heat exchanger (GHE) in the frozen soil layer is presented and the steady-state distribution of temperature field is simulated. Numerical results show that the frozen depth mainly depends on the soil′s moisture content and ambient temperature. The heat transfer loss of horizontal GHE tends to grow with the increase of the soil′s moisture content and the decrease of ambient temperature. Backfilled materials with optimal thermal conductivity can reduce the thermal loss effectively in the frozen soil. The applicability of the Chinese national standard “Technical Code for Ground Source Heat Pump (GB 50366-2005)” is verified. For a ground source heat pump project, the feasible layout of horizontal GHE should be determined based on the integration of the soil′s structure, backfilled materials, weather data, and economic analysis.

Case study of underground pipe ground coupled heat pump system

Aiming to give some advices on the ground coupled heat pump system design in Sichuan Province,China,a typical ground source heat pump(GSHP) system in Sichuan Province was tested in a whole operational year,and the parameters of temperature and flow rate in different parts of system were measured during this period.The seasonal energy efficiency ratio was calculated and the performance of heat pump system in summer was compared with that in winter.The result shows that the coefficient of performance of the system reaches 3.63 in summer and 3.49 in winter,respectively.The heat balance in underground rock mass is acquired basically throughout the year,and the heat accumulation in the earth tends to be zero.

Thermal performance analysis of borehole size effect on geothermal heat exchanger

Thermal performance was the most important factor in the development of borehole heat exchanger utilizing geothermal energy.The thermal performance was affected by many different design parameters,such as configuration type and borehole size of geothermal heat exchanger.These eventually determined the operation and cost efficiency of the geothermal heat exchanger system.The main purpose of this work was to assess the thermal performance of geothermal heat exchanger with variation of borehole sizes and numbers of U-tubes inside a borehole.For this,a thermal response test rig was established with line-source theory.The thermal response test was performed with in-line variable input heat source.Effective thermal conductivity and thermal resistance were obtained from the measured data.From the measurement,the effective thermal conductivity is found to have similar values for twopair type(4 U-tubes)and three-pair type(6 U-tubes)borehole heat exchanger systems indicating similar heat transfer ability.Meanwhile,the thermal resistance shows lower value for the three-pair type compared to the two-pair type.Measured data based resistance have lower value compared to computed result from design programs.Overall comparison finds better thermal performance for the three-pair type,however,fluctuating temperature variation indicates complex flow behavior inside the borehole and requires further study on flow characteristics.

Thermal Response Test by Improved Test Rig with Heating or Cooling Soil

An improved test rig providing both the heat and cold source was used to perform thermal response test(TRT), and the line source model was used for data analysis. The principle of determining the temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of test well can keep the heating or cooling rate constant, along with a reduced size of test rig. Among the influencial factors of the line source model, the temperature difference was determined as the most important, which agreed with the test results. When the gravel was taken as the backfill material, the soil thermal conductivities of heating and cooling at the test place were 1.883 W/(m·K) and 1.754 W/(m·K), respectively, and the deviation of TRT between heating and cooling soil was 6.8%. In the case of fine sand, the thermal conductivities of heating and cooling were 1.541 W/(m·K) and 1.486 W/(m·K), respectively, and the corresponding deviation was 6%. It was also concluded that different velocities of water had less influence on TRT than the temperature difference.

Experiments Using Capillary Mat as Ground Heat Exchanger for Ground Source Heat Pump Heating Application

The cooling and heating of spaces are among the largest sources for household’s energy demand. Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) is a promising technology to reduce the energy for cooling and heating purposes. However, the major obstacle hindering the utilization of this technology is the high initial cost, especially for the installation of ground coupled heat exchanger. The horizontal closed-loop system offers lower installation cost, as it requires no vertical borehole construction. Instead, the heat exchangers can be installed in shallow trenches that may be excavated, by small excavator or even by human labor. This paper presents the comparison of two different heat exchangers, namely, the capillary mat and the widely used slinky pipe. Both heat exchangers are connected to a heat pump, where continuous heating tests were carried out for 165 hours (~7 days) for each configuration. The purpose of this research is to show the performance of capillary mat in comparison to slinky pipe. Despite during the entire test for capillary mat required 6% higher electricity consumption, compared to slinky heat exchanger, the results still suggest the potential use of capillary mat as alternative to slinky heat exchanger. Additionally, the results also highlight the high hydraulic resistance of installed capillary mat heat exchangers may become the major disadvantage of the capillary mat.

Research on ground heat exchanger of Ground Source Heat Pump technique

Ground Source Heat Pump technique and its operating principle are described in this paper. Ground heat exchanger is the key technique of ground source heat pump and its patterns are discussed. Software is helpful to design ground heat exchanger. A project of Chinese Ground Source Heat Pump is introduced and its market is more and more extensive.

Advances in ground heat exchangers for space heating and cooling:Review and perspectives

As a renewable energy source,geothermal energy has been widely used to provide space heating and cooling for buildings.The thermal performance of ground heat exchanger(GHE)is significant for the operating efficiency of the ground source heat pump(GSHP)systems.This paper presents a comprehensive review of developments and advances of three kinds of GHE,including vertical borehole GHE(VBGHE),Pile GHE(PGHE),and deep borehole GHE(DBGHE)which are currently popular in larger GSHP systems.Firstly,analytical models proposed to ana-lyze heat transfer process of VBGHE with different geological conditions are summarized,such as homogenous or heterogeneous ground,with or without groundwater advection.Numerical and short-time step models and measures to improve GHE thermal performance are also reviewed.Secondly,a summary of research advances in PGHE is provided,which includes the heat transfer models of PGHE,the effects of geometric structure,oper-ation modes,pile spacing,use of phase change material(PCM),thermal properties of PCM,thermo-mechanical behavior and/or thermal performance of PGHE.The effects of groundwater flow direction and velocity on PGHE are also summarized in brief.Lastly,models of three kinds of DBGHEs,i.e.,deep coaxial GHE(DCGHE),deep U-bend GHE(DUGHE)and super-long gravity heat pipe(SLGHP),are reviewed.The physical bases of the dif-ferent analytical models are elaborated and also their advantages and disadvantages are described.Advances in numerical modelling and improving numerical model calculation speed of DCBHE,DCBHE array,and DUBHE are summarized.The review provides a meaningful reference for the further study of GHEs.

Field evaluation of a ground-coupled heat pump in hot-summer and cold-winter regions

The experimental performance of small-sized ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) is researched intensively. However, there are little data documenting the operation performance of existing large-sized GCHP system. We presented the actual performance measurement of a GCHP installed for apartment buildings in Wuhan, Hubei province, P. R. China. The system was constructed with a closed vertical typed ground heat exchanger with a total pipe length of 32 000 m. During one year, various operating parameters were monitored, including the outdoor temperature, the flow rate, the electrical consumption, and the water temperature. The seasonal coefficients of performances of the heat pumps and the system based on the measured data were found to be 4.01 and 2.96 in the cooling season, and 3.54 and 2.86 in the heating season, respectively. The GCHP system was more economical than the air-source room air conditioner in the energy efficiency which was increased by 29% in cooling mode and 50% in heating mode. There was an obvious heat imbalance of soil between the injection rate and the extraction rate in the residential GCHP system operation.

Surface treatment to improve corrosion resistance of Al plate heat exchangers

The correlations between thermal and physical properties were studied through thermal conductivity measurements, hardness tests, salt spray tests (AASS) among the surface treatment samples named K20, K40 with thickness of 20, 40 μm respectively and raw sample named K00. In thermal conductivity measurements, there are little differences among the samples as K00, K20 and K40, they exhibit 153.39, 150.69 and 149.76 W/(m·K), respectively. According to hardness tests, K00, K20 and K40 exhibit 87.9, 259.7 and 344.8 in Vickers values. In the result of salt spray tests to examine the effects on corrosion resistance, K00, K20 and K40 exhibit the grade of 3?5, 2.0?9.8 and 10, respectively. The mutual relation of the above results was analyzed. It is found that the surface treatments do not affect the thermal conductivity of aluminum and result in the improvement of physical properties. As a result of the technology, the surface improvement of aluminum alloy specimen is achieved without thermal degradation. It validates the ability of the aluminum plate heat exchangers with surface treatment to enhance the corrosion resistance. Present work is performed as the first fundamental threshold in the process of aluminum plate heat exchangers development to check out its possibility, therefore the next step-experimental and numerical study of practical aluminum plate heat exchangers will be made.

Research on Performance of Ground-Source Heat Pump Double U Underground Pipe Heat Exchange

This paper uses FLUENT software building the three-dimensional unsteady state model of ground source heat pump single U and double U underground pipe to study on heat exchange of underground pipe system in the condition of unsteady state long-term continuous running, analyzes the change of soil temperature filed around underground pipe and performance of underground pipe heat exchange between single U and double U pipe system. The results show that double U pipe system is better than single U system, which can improve unit depth heat exchange efficiency, reduce the number of wells and reduce the initial investment.

Achieving Cooler Soil as an Effective Heat Sink for Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) Cooling Technology in Malaysia Tropical Climate

This research is intended to explore the capacity of Malaysia soil in becoming a more effective heat sink for the application of Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) Cooling Technology in Malaysia. EAHE Cooling Technology consists of buried pipes underground where the ambient air is channeled through from the pipe inlet and produces cooler air at its outlet. Within the buried pipes, heat exchange process occurs between the air and the soil that surrounding the pipe. This building cooling technology has been applied in many countries, mostly in temperate or hot and arid climate where the diurnal temperature is large. However, minimal resources were found on the study of EAHE application to buildings in Malaysia, hence there is room to develop. A parametric study on EAHE cooling application in Malaysia was done through field experiment and concluded that among many parameters affecting the technology performance, the soil temperature which surrounded the pipe was the most influential factor. The study recommended to further reduce the soil temperature to achieve a cooler outlet temperature. In response to that, this research conducted a parametric study of soil temperature under three different soil surface conditions: bare, shaded with timber pallettes and insulated with used tyres at 1.0 m and 1.5 m underground. The data was logged for a month and the result has shown significant reduction in the soil temperature underground below the shaded and insulated soil surface as compared to below bare soil surface condition. The insulated soil surface produced the best result where the soil temperature was reduced up to 26.9°C. The main contribution of this paper is to highlight that the soil surface treatment can be used to reduce solar heat gain within the soil underground and thus improving the performance of EAHE Cooling Technology particularly for the application in Malaysia tropical climate.

Experimental study on heat exchange of several types of exchangers

Aiming at the ground-coupled source heat pump that possesses the shortcomings of occupying larger land,this article studies the heat exchanged of heat exchanger in piling,and compares it with common heat exchangers buried directly. The result indicates that the heat exchanger makes the best use of structure of building,saves land,reduces the construction cost,and the heat exchanged is obviously more than exchangers buried directly. In winter condition,when W-shape pipe heat exchanger in pile foundation is 50 m deep and diameter is 800 mm,it transfers 1.2-1.3 times as large as the one of single U-shape buried directly at the flow rate of 0.6 m/s,whose borehole diameter is 300 mm. And in summer condition it does about 2.0-2.3 times as that of U-shape one.

地下隐蔽工程地源热泵地埋管管群优化研究

地下建筑地源热泵系统向地下释放的热量常大于所提取的热量,容易造成地埋管区域的热量累积,影响其正常使用。因此,提高地埋管换热器效率,减弱冷热量失衡影响,是地下隐蔽工程应用地源热泵系统亟需解决的问题。文章基于换热器温差场均匀性原则,采用全局优化遗传算法,优化了地埋管换热器管群布置。结果表明:与传统等间距方案相比,优化布置后,16、25个钻孔方案的平均无因次温变热阻分别降低了13.8%和53.3%,平均换热效率分别提高了3.76%和5.74%,即钻孔数量越多,换热效率提升越明显。