Study on physical characteristic of Graphite-added grout for backfilling cloed-loop groud heat exchanger

흑연(Graphite) 첨가를 통한 수직 밀폐형 지중열교환기 뒤채움재의 열전도 특성 향상 연구

The thermal conductivity and viscosity(or workability) of graphite-added bentonite grouts and cementitious grouts have been evaluated and compared to determine the suitability of these materials for backfilling vertical boreholes of ground heat exchangers. Seven bentonite grouts from different product sources and a portland cement grout with various mixture ratios were considered in this paper. As a new additive for grout, we choose graphite which has high thermal conductivity. The bentonite grouts indicate that the thermal conductivity and viscosity increase with the content of bentonite or with an addition of Graphite compared with that of silica sand. In case of cementitious grout also increase the thermal conductivity and decrease the workability dramatically though an addition of Graphite. Therefore, we cautiously select the amount of graphite and mixture ratio of bentonite and cement considering not only thermal conductivity but also viscosity for the optimum condition of backfilling material.