• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.58-63
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• 2009

A ground-loop heat exchanger for the ground source heat pump system is the core equipment determining the thermal performance and initial cost of the system. The size and performance of the heat exchanger is highly dependent on the ground thermal properties - the ground effective thermal conductivity, the borehole thermal resistance and the undisturbed ground temperature. Nowadays, precast concrete piles using steel reinforced precast concrete piles - energy piles - are used to reduce the installing cost of the ground-loop heat exchanger. We were carried out some tests to investigate the effects of some parameters such as borehole length, grouting materials and U-tube configuration of the energy piles. 4 concrete piles, each measuring $250mm{\sim}400mm$ in diameter and approx. 10m in length, and rigged with single spiral and 3 U-tube loop of $16mm{\times}2.3mm$ PB piping. The thermal response tests were conducted using a testing device for 4-different ground-loop heat exchangers. During the heating period, the energy piles absorb the heat of 0.89kW to 1.37kW.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.581-586
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• 2009

Knowledge of ground thermal properties is most important for the proper design of large scale BHE(borehole heat exchanger) systems. The type, pipe size and thermal performance of the BHE is highly dependent on the ground source heatpump system-efficiency and instruction cost. Thermal response tests with mobile measurement devices were developed primarily for insitu determination of design data for large diameter BHE for triple-U spacer apply. The main purpose has been to determine insitu values of effective ground thermal conductivity and thermal resistance, including the effect of ground-water flow and natural convection in the boreholes. The test rig is set up on a some trailer, and contains a circulation pump, a inline heater, temperature sensors, flow meter, power analysis meter and a data logger for recording the temperature, fluid flow data. A constant heat power is injected into the borehole through the tripl-U pipes system of test rig and the resulting temperature change in the borehole is recorded. The recorded temperature data are analysed with a line-source model, which gives the effective insitu values of rock thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance of large diameter BHE for spacer apply.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.361-375
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• 2015

An energy pile is one of the novel ground heat exchangers (GHEX's) that is a economical alternative to the conventional closed-loop vertical GHEX. The combined system of both a structural foundation and a GHEX contains a heat exchange pipe inside the pile foundation and allows a working fluid circulating through the pipe, inducing heat exchange with the ground formation. In this paper, a group of energy piles equipped with parallel U-type (5, 8 and 10 pairs) heat exchange pipes was constructed in a test-bed by fabricating in large-diameter cast-in-place concrete piles. In addition, a closed-loop vertical GHEX with 30m depth was constructed nearby to conduct in-situ thermal response tests (TRTs) and to compare with the thermal performance of the cast-in-place energy piles. A series of thermal performance tests was carried out with application of an artificial cooling and heating load to evaluate the heat exchange rate of energy piles. The applicability of cast-in-place energy piles was evaluated by comparing the relative heat exchange efficiency and heat exchange rate with preceding studies. Finally, it is concluded that the cast-in-place energy piles constructed in the test-bed demonstrate effective and stable thermal performance compared with the other types of GHEX.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.5-21
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• 2015

An energy pile is a novel type of ground heat exchangers (GHEX's) which sets up heat exchange pipes inside a pile foundation, and allows to circulate a working fluid through the pipe for exchanging thermal energy with the surrounding ground stratum. Using existing foundation structure, the energy pile can function not only as a structural foundation but also as a GHEX. In this paper, six full-scale energy piles were constructed in a test bed with various configurations of the heat exchange pipe inside large-diameter cast-in-place piles, that is, three parallel U-type heat exchangers (5, 8 and 10 pairs), two coil type heat exchangers (with a 500 mm and 200 mm pitch), and one S-type heat exchanger. During constructing the energy piles, the constructability of each energy pile was evaluated with consideration of the installation time, the number of workers and any difficulty for installing. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of energy piles, the thermal performance tests were carried out by applying intermittent (8 hours operating-16 hours pause) artificial cooling operation to simulate a cooling load for commercial buildings. Through the thermal performance tests, the heat exchange rates of the six energy piles were evaluated in terms of the heat exchange amount normalized with the length of energy pile and/or the length of heat exchange pipe. Finally, the economic feasibility of energy pile was evaluated according to the various types of heat exchange pipe by calculating demanded expenses per 1 W/m based on the thermal performance test results along with the market value of heat exchange pipes and labor cost.