Simulation of heat transfer performance using middle-deep coaxial borehole heat exchangers by FEFLOW

Due to its large heat transfer area and stable thermal performance,the middledeep coaxial borehole heat exchanger(CBHE)has become one of the emerging technologies to extract geothermal energy.In this paper,a numerical modeling on a three-dimensional unsteady heat transfer model of a CBHE was conducted by using software FEFLOW,in which the model simulation was compared with the other studies and was validated with experimental data.On this basis,a further simulation was done in respect of assessing the influencing factors of thermal extraction performance and thermal influence radius of the CBHE.The results show that the outlet temperature of the heat exchanger decreases rapidly at the initial stage,and then tended to be stable;and the thermal influence radius increases with the increase of borehole depth.The heat extraction rate of the borehole increases linearly with the geothermal gradient.Rock heat capacity has limited impact on the heat extraction rate,but has a great influence on the thermal influence radius of the CBHE.When there is groundwater flow in the reservoir,the increase of groundwater velocity will result in the rise of both outlet temperature and heat extraction rate.The heat affected zone extends along with the groundwater flow direction;and its influence radius is increasing along with flow velocity.In addition,the material of the inner pipe has a significant effect on the heat loss in the pipe,so it is recommended that the material with low thermal conductivity should be used if possible.

Numerical study on the heat transfer performance of coaxial shallow borehole heat exchanger

In the present work,a numerical investigation on the coaxial shallow borehole heat exchanger based on Com-putational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)technique in Hefei city of China has been performed.The effects of design parameters,including inlet flow rate,inlet fluid temperature,inner pipe material and outer pipe diameter,on the heat transfer performance were systematically studied.Besides,the thermal behavior along the pipe has been carefully examined with focus on the thermal short-circuiting phenomena.When the fluid inlet velocity is less than the critical value,the turbulence intensity increases and the Nusselt number increases with the inlet flow rate increasing.However,there is sufficient time for heat transfer between the fluid in inner pipe and outer pipe because of low flow rates,leading to large heat loss,i.e.,thermal short-circuiting phenomenon.It is found that with the inlet flow rate increasing,the heat transfer increases first and then decreases,and the rate of reduction slows down gradually.When the inlet flow rate increases,the pumping power undergoes exponential growth.As the inlet temperature increasing,the heat transfer decreases almost linearly.Moreover,when the soil temperature at the top of the casing is lower than that of the fluid in the casing,heat is transferred from the fluid in the casing to the soil,and the heat loss increases with the increase of the inlet fluid temperature.The material of inner pipe with high heat conductivity would result in large heat loss under the influence of thermal short-circuiting.The heat load increases while the pumping power required decreases with the increasing of outer pipe diameter.This study is very beneficial for the coaxial shallow borehole exchanger designs and energy conservation of buildings.