• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.155-157
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• 2013

Ground source heat pump(GSHP) systems have been attracted as high-efficient energy-saving technology, but the building clients and designers have hesitated to use GSHP systems which is a expensive initial installation and a uncertain economic feasibility. Therefore In order to reduce the initial cost, many researchers have focused on the energy-pile system using the structure of the building as a heat exchanger. Even though many of experimental studies for energy pile system have been conducted, there was not enough data of a quantitative evaluation with the economic analysis and comprehensive analysis for energy-pile. In this study, the feasibility study for the energy pile system with a barrette pile was conducted by the performance analysis and LCC assessment.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.600-605
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• 2013

Ground source heat pump systems (GSHP) can achieve higher performance of the system, by supplying more efficient heat source to the heat pump, than the conventional air-source heat pump system. But building clients and designers have hesitated to use GSHP systems, due to expensive initial cost, and uncertain economic feasibility. In order to reduce the initial cost, many researches have focused on the energy-pile system, using the structure of the building as a heat exchanger. Even though several experimental studies for the energy-pile system have been conducted, there was not enough data of quantitative evaluation with economic analysis and comprehensive analysis for the energy-pile. In this study, a prediction method has been developed for the energy pile system with barrette pile, using the ground heat transfer model and ground heat exchanger model. Moreover, a feasibility study for the energy pile system with barrette pile was conducted, by performance analysis and LCC assessment. As a result, it was found that the heat exchange rate of a barrette pile was 2.55 kW, and the payback period using LCC analysis was 8.8 years.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.37-51
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• 2013

An energy pile encases heat exchange pipes to exchange thermal energy with the surrounding ground formation by circulating working fluid through the pipes. An energy pile has many advantages in terms of economic feasibility and constructability over conventional Ground Heat Exchangers (GHEXs). In this paper, a coil-type PHC energy pile was constructed in a test bed and its thermal performance was experimentally and numerically evaluated to make a preliminary design. An in-situ thermal response test (TRT) was performed on the coil-type PHC energy pile and its results were compared with the solid cylinder source model presented by Man et al. (2010). In addition, a CFD numerical analysis using FLUNET was carried out to back-analyze the thermal conductivity of the ground formation from the Ttype PHC energy RT result. To study effects of a coil pitch of the coil-type heat exchange pipe, a thermal interference between the heat exchange pipes in PHC energy piles was parametrically studied by performing the CFD numerical analysis, then the effect of the coil pitch on thermal performance and efficiency of heat exchange were evaluated. Finally, an equivalent heat exchange efficiency factor for the coil-type PHC energy pile in comparison with a common multiple U-type PHC energy pile was obtained to facilitate a preliminary design method for the coil-type PHC energy pile by adopting the PILESIM2 program.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.18-27
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• 1998

Biopulping is defined as the treatment of wood chips with lignin-degrading fungi prior to pulping. Fungal pretreatment prior to mechanical pulping reduces electrical energy requirements during refining or increases mill throughput, improves paper strength, reduces the pitch content, and reduces the environmental impact of pulping. Our recent work involved scaling up the biopulping process towards the industrial level, investigating both the engineering and economic feasibility. We envision the process to be done in either a chip-pile or silo-based system for which several factors need to be considered: the degree of decontamination, a hospitable environment for the fungus, and the overall process economics. Currently, treatment of the chips with low-pressure steam is sufficient for decontamination and a simple, forced ventilation system maintains the proper temperature, humidity, and moisture conditions, thus promoting uniform growth of the fungus. The pilot-scale trial resulted in the successful treatment of 4 tons of wood chips (dry weight basis) with results comparable to those on a laboratory. Larger, 40-ton trials were also successful, with energy savings and paper properties comparable with the laboratory scale. The overall economics of the process also look very favorable and can result in significant annual savings to the mill. Although the current research has focused on biopulping for mechanical pulping, it is also beneficial for sulfite chemical pulping and some applications to recycled fiber have been investigated.