A study on cement-based grout for ground heat exchangers

지중 열교환기용 시멘트 그라우트에 관한 연구

In this paper, the applicability of cement grout has been studied as an alternative to bentonite grout for backfill ground heat exchangers. To provide an optimal mixture design, the thermal conductivity of cement grout and bentonite grout with various mixture ratios were experimentally evaluated and compared. Numerical analyses using Fluent(FVM program) were applied to compare the thermal transfer efficiency of the cement grout with that of the bentonite grout used in the construction. Also the effective ground thermal conductivity was measured by In-situ thermal response test. The results showed that the thermal efficiency of the cement grout was better than the bentonite grout. Consequently, the cement grout could be an alternative with more thermal efficiency to bentonite grout for ground heat exchangers.