수치해석을 통한 수직 밀폐형 지중열 교환기의 열전달 거동 연구

Thermal Behavior of Vertical Ground Heat Exchanger by Numerical Simulation

This paper presents a series of numerical simulations on the thermal performance and sectional efficiency of a closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger (U-loop) equipped in a geothermal heat pump system (GHP). A 2-D finite element analysis, ANSYS, was employed to evaluate the temperature distribution on the borehole cross section involving HDPE pipe/grout/soil formation to compare the sectional efficiency between the conventional U-loop and a new latticed HDPE pipe system which is equipped with a thermally insulating latice in order to reduce thermal interference between the inflow and outflow pipes. In addition, a 3-D finite volume analysis (Fluent) was used to simulate the operating process of the closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger by considering the effect of grout's thermal properties, rate of circulation pump, distance between the inflow and outflow pipes, and the effectiveness of the latticed HDPE pipe system. It was observed that the thermal interference between the two strands of U-loop is of importance in determining the efficiency of the ground heat exchanger, and thus it is highly recommendable to modify the cross section configuration of the conventional U-loop system by including a thermally insulating latice between the two strands.