• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.423-428
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• 2007

This study was performed to construct a geothermal data base about thermal conductivity of ground heat exchanger and thermal properties of grouting material which used to refill the borehole. We have acquired geothermal data sets from 39 sites over wide area of South Korea except to Jeju island. From data analysis, the range of thermal conductivity is 1.5$\sim$4.0 W/mK. It means that thermal conductivity varies with grouting material as well as regional geology and ground water system.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.68-74
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• 2012

Investigation of the effective soil thermal conductivity($k$) is the first step in designing the ground loop heat exchanger(borehole) of a geothermal heat pump system. Another important factor is the borehole thermal resistance($R_b$). Thermal response tests offer a good method to determine the ground thermal properties for the total heat transport in the ground. The first step is measured for initial soil temperature. This is done by supplying a only pump power into a borehole heat exchanger. They need to supply into water unload heat power more than 30 minutes. In this study, the initial soil temperature was found to analysis $14.1{\sim}16.0^{\circ}C$,the ratio was 68.7% represented. In this case of $k$, was 2.1~3.0 $W/m{\cdot}k$, $R_b$ was 0.11~0.20 $m{\cdot}K/W$. In this work, it is also shown that the distribution of a soil thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance were on the influence of initial soil temperature. And soil thermal conductivity was related with factors of equation by linear least square method, borehole thermal resistance was on the influence of composite factors.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.459-467
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• 2016

Due to the limited areal space for installation, borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) at depths deeper than 300 m are considered for geothermal heating and cooling in the urban area. The deep vertical closed-loop BHEs are unconventional due to the depth and the range of the typical installation depth is between 100 and 200 m in Korea. The BHE in the study consists of 50A (outer diameter 50 mm, SDR 11) PE U-tube pipe in a 150 mm diameter borehole with the depth of 300 m. In order to compensate the buoyancy caused by the low density of PE pipe ($0.94{\sim}0.96g/cm^3$) in the borehole filled with ground water, 10 weight band sets (4.6 kg/set) were attached to the bottom of U-tube. A thermal response test (TRT) and fundamental basic surveys on the thermophysical characteristics of the ground were conducted. Ground temperature measures around $15^{\circ}C$ from the surface to 100 m, and the geothermal gradient represents $1.9^{\circ}C/100m$ below 100 m. The TRT was conducted for 48 hours with 17.5 kW heat injection, 28.65 l/min at a circulation fluid flow rate indicates an average temperature difference $8.9^{\circ}C$ between inlet and outlet circulation fluid. The estimated thermophysical parameters are 3.0 W/mk of ground thermal conductivity and 0.104 mk/W of borehole thermal resistance. In the stepwise evaluation of TRT, the ground thermal conductivity was calculated at the standard deviation of 0.16 after the initial 13 hours. The sensitivity analysis on the borehole thermal resistance was also conducted with respect to the PE pipe diameter and the thermal conductivity of backfill material. The borehole thermal resistivity slightly decreased with the increase of the two parameters.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.10-15
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• 2011

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 length and performance of the heat exchanger is dependent on the ground thermal conductivity, the operation hours, the ground loop diameter, the grout, the ground loop arrangement, the pipe placement and the design temperature. The result of this simulation shows that higher thermal conductivity of grouting materials leads to the decrease length of geothermal heat exchanger from 100.0 to 84.4%.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.71-78
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• 2010

Investigation of the effective soil thermal conductivity(k) is the first step in designing the ground loop heat exchanger(borehole) of a geothermal heat pump system. The line source method is required by New and Renewable Energy Center of Korea Energy Management Corporation in analyzing data obtained from thermal response tests. Another important factor in designing the ground loop heat exchanger is the borehole thermal resistance($R_b$). There are two methods to evaluate $R_b$ : one is to use a line source method, and the other is to use a shape factor of the borehole. In this study, we demonstrated that the line source method produces better results than the shape factor method in evaluating $R_b$. This is because the borehole thermal resistance evaluated with the line source method characteristically reduces the temperature differences between an actual and a theoretical thermal behaviors of the borehole. Evaluation of $R_b$ requires soil volumetric heat capacity. However, the effect of the soil volumetric heat capacity on the borehole thermal resistance is very small. Therefore, it is possible to use a generally accepted average value of soil volumetric heat capacity($=2MJ/m^3{\cdot}K$) in the analysis. In this work, it is also shown that an acceptable range of the initial ignoring time should be in the range of 8~16hrs. Thus, a mean value of 12 hrs is recommended.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.80-86
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• 2011

Investigation of the effective soil thermal conductivity(k) is the first step in designing the ground loop heat exchanger(borehole) of a geothermal heat pump system. Another important factor is the borehole thermal resistance($R_b$). Thermal response tests offer a good method to determine the ground thermal properties for the total heat transport in the ground. This is done by supplying a constant heat power into a borehole heat exchanger. There are two methods to supply a constant heat power. One is to employ the electricity provided by Korea Electric Power Corporation(KEPCO). The other is to use electricity generated by a generator. In this study, the power supply regulation was found to reduce when the electricity generated by the generator was used. This is because the generator evaluated with the power supply characteristically reduces the power supply regulation between an overload and a complex using. But it sometimes occurs a power supply regulation in In-situ thermal response test. In this case getting of k,$R_b$ requires delay times and restored normal state. However, the effect of the delay times and restored normal state on the soil thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance is very small. Therefore it is possible to use a generally accepted delay times and restored normal state in the analysis. In this work, it is also shown that an acceptable range of ${\Delta}k$, ${\Delta}R_b$ for normal state and regulation state might be approximately 0.01-0.16W/m k, and -0.004-0.007m K/W, respectively. Thus, restored normal state of power supply regulation is valuable to recommend.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3371-3376
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• 2007

The design of a ground-source heat pump system includes specifications for a ground loop heat exchanger where the heat transfer rate depends on the thermal conductivity of the ground. To evaluate this heat transfer property, in-situ thermal response tests on four vertical test boreholes with different grouting materials were conducted by adding a monitored amount of heat to water over various test lengths. By measuring the water temperatures entering and exiting the loop, water flow rate, and heat load, effective thermal conductivity values of the ground were determined. The effect of increasing thermal conductivity of grouting materials from 0.82 to 1.05 W/m$^{\circ}C$ resulted in overall increases in effective ground thermal conductivity by 25.8% to 69.5%.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.427-432
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• 2005

This study treats the advantage of in situ line source method measuring the heat transfer capacity of a borehole, using mobile equipment, to determine the thermal properties of the entire borehole system such as thermal conductivity, diffusiveity. volumetric heat capacity, and borehole thermal resistance. The results from the response test include not only the thermal properties of the ground and the borehole, but also conditions that are difficult to estimate, e,g. natural convection in the boreholes, asymmetry in the construction, etc. In this study, 1) theoretical in situ methods for assessing working fluid temperature variation in V-type PE tube have been introduced, and 2) TRTE(Thermal Response Test Equipment) has been built based on these kinds of theoretical in situ methods. Basically TRTE consists of a pump, a heater and temperature sensors for measuring the inlet and outlet temperatures of the borehole. In order to make equipment easily transportable it is set up on a small trailer. Since the response test takes above two days to execute, the test was fully automatic in recording measured data using Labview DAS(Data acquisition system) program. The test was demonstrated in the course of intensive research in this field through the one site at Ulsan city in Korea. From this kind of thermal properties test of borehole systems in situ, the design of the borehole system can be optimized regarding the total geological, hydro-geological and technical conditions at the location.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.739-745
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• 2008

This paper presents the measurement of ground thermal conductivity and the characteristics of ground thermal diffusion by a ground heat exchanger(GHE). A borehole is installed to a depth of 175 m with a diameter of 150 mm. To analyze the thermal diffusion property of the GHE, thermocouples are installed under the ground near the GHE. The outdoor temperature, the ground temperature, and the water temperature of the GHE are monitored for evaluating the characteristics of ground thermal diffusion. The ground thermal conductivity is evaluated by the in-situ thermal response tester and the line source model. It is found to be 3.08 W/$m^{\circ}C$ in this study. The ground temperature is greatly dependent on the outdoor temperature from the ground surface to 2.5 m in depth and is stable below 10 m in depth. The surface temperature of the GHE varies as a function of the temperature of circulating water. But the ground temperature at 1.5 m far from the GHE is not changed in accordance with the temperature of circulating water.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.39-44
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• 2008

The heat exchange between the Borehole Heat Exchanger(BHE) and the surrounding ground depends directly on ground thermal conductivity k at the certain site. The k is thus a key parameter in designing BHE and coupled geothermal heat pump systems. Currently, although a thermal hydraulic response test(TRT) is mostly used in practice, the thermal hydraulic TRT needs additional power and is generally time-consuming. A new, simple wireless P/T probe for a hi-speed k determination was introduced in this paper. This technique using a wireless P/T probe is less time-consuming and requires no external source of energy for measurement and predicts local thermal properties by measuring soil temperatures along the depth. Measured temperature data along the depth was analyzed. In order to verify the new technique for the determination of ground thermal conductivity, ground thermal conductivity k that calculated from the measured temperature data using a wireless P/T probe was compared with one obtained from conventional hydraulic TRT. When comparing the average k of two methods, the relative error was approximately 10%. As a result, the electronic TRT can replace the conventional hydraulic TRT method after carrying out the additional research on a lot of sites.