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.

Performance Characteristics of Geothermal Single Well for Building Heating

The single well geothermal heating(SWGH)technology has attracted extensive attention.To enhance heat extraction from SWGH,a mathematical model describing heat transfer is set up,and the key influence factor and heat transfer enhancement method are discussed by thermal resistance analysis.The numerical results show that the thermal resistance of rock is far greater than that of well wall and fluid.So,reducing rock thermal resistance is the most effective method for enhancing the heat extraction power.For geothermal well planning to drill:rock thermal resistance can be reduced by increasing well diameter and rock thermal conductivity;the temperature difference between liquid and rock can be raised by increasing well depth.For already existing geothermal well:an insulator with thermal conductivity of 0.2 W/(mK)is sufficient to preserve fluid enthalpy;a decrease in injection water temperature causes the increase of heat extraction power from geothermal well and heat output from heat pump simultaneously;increasing injection velocity causes the increase of pump power consumption and heat extraction power from geothermal well as well as net heat output between them.The entrepreneurs may refer to the above data in actual project.Furthermore,filling composite materials with high thermal conductivity into leakage formation is proposed in order to reduce the thermal resistance of rocks.