• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.50-50
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• 2007

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.49-56
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• 2013

The use of geothermal energy has been increased for economic and environmental friendly utilization. Ground thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance are very important parameters in the design of geothermal heat pump system. This paper presents an experimental study of heat exchange rate of U and W type ground heat exchangers (GHEs) measured by thermal performance tests (TPTs). U and W type GHEs were installed in a partially saturated dredged soil deposit, and TPTs were conducted to evaluate heat exchange rates under 100-hr continuous operation condition. The heat exchange rates were also calculated by analytical models to estimate borehole thermal resistances and were compared with experimental results. It comes out that multi-pole and equivalent diameter (EQD) models resulted in more accurate agreement than shape factor (SF) model which is currently more often used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.800-807
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• 2010

In this study, a series of numerical analyses has been performed in order to evaluate the performance of a full-scale closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger constructed in Wonju. The circulation pipe HDPE, borehole and surrounding ground were modeled using FLUENT, a finite-volume method (FVM) program, for analyzing the heat transfer process of the system. Two user-defined functions (UDFs) accounting for the difference in the temperatures of the circulating inflow and outflow water and the change of the surrounding ground temperature with depth were adopted in the FLUENT model. The thermal properties of materials estimated in laboratory were used in the numerical analyses to compare the thermal efficiency of the cement grout with that of the bentonite grout used in the construction. The results of the simulation provide a verification of the in situ thermal response test data. The numerical model with the ground thermal conductivity of 4W/mK yielded the simulation result closer to the in-situ thermal response test than with the ground thermal conductivity of 3W/mK. From the results of the numerical analyses, the effective thermal conductivities of the cement and bentonite grouts were obtained to be 3.32W/mK and 2.99 W/mK, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.30-40
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• 2021

This paper compares the annual energy performance of four different types of air-conditioning systems in a medium-sized office building. Chiller and boiler, air-cooled VRF, ground-source VRF, and ground-source heat pump systems were selected as the systems to be compared. Specifically, the energy performance of the GSHP system and the ground-source VRF system were compared with each other and also with conventional HVAC systems including the chiller and boiler system and air-cooled VRF system. In order to evaluate and compare the energy performances of four systems for the office building, EnergyPlus, a whole-building energy simulation program, was used. The EnergyPlus simulation results show that both the GSHP and the ground-source VRF systems not only save more energy than the other two systems but also significantly reduce the electric peak demand. These make the GSHP and the VRF systems more desirable energy-efficient HVAC technologies for the utility companies and their clients. It is necessary to analyze the impact of partial load performance of ground-source heat pump and ground-source VRF on the long-term (more than 20 years) performance of ground heat exchangers and entire systems.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2008

A geothermal heat pump system is a preferable alternative energy system in Korea because it uses the heat energy of the earth, which is environmentally friendly and inexhaustible. In order to characterize the thermal conductivity and viscosity of grout materials used for backfilling ground heat exchangers, nine bentonite grouts, one marine clay from Boryung, and cement grouts adapted in the United State have been considered in this study. The bentonite grouts indicate that the thermal conductivity and viscosity increase with the content of bentonite or filler (silica sand). In addition, material segregation can be observed when the viscosity of grout is relatively low. The marine clay turns out to be unsuitable for backfilling the ground heat exchanger due to its insufficient swelling potential. The saturated cement grouts appear to possess much higher thermal conductivity than the saturated bentonite grouts, and the reduction of thermal conductivity in the cement grouts after drying specimens is less than that in the case of the bentonite grouts. Maintaining the moisture content of grouts is a crucial factor in enhancing the efficiency of ground heat exchangers.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.238-238
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• 2004

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.306-314
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• 2012

Several numerical or analytical models have been proposed to analyze the thermal response of vertical ground heat exchangers (GHEX). However, most models are valid only after several hours of operation since they neglect the heat capacity of the borehole. Recently, the short time response of the GHEX became important in system simulation to improve efficiency. In this paper, a simple new method to evaluate the short time response of the GHEX by using an analogy model of electric circuit transient analysis was presented. The new transient heat exchanger model adopting the concept of thermal capacitance of the borehole as well as the steady-state thermal resistance showed the transient thermal resistance of the borehole. The model was validated by in-situ thermal response test and then compared with the DST model of the TRNSYS program.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.5-15
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• 2012

In this study, a series of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) numerical analyses were performed in order to evaluate the thermal performance of six full-scale closed-loop vertical ground heat exchangers constructed in a test bed located in Wonju. The circulation HDPE pipe, borehole and surrounding ground formation were modeled using FLUENT, a finite-volume method (FVM) program, for analyzing the heat transfer process of the system. Two user-defined functions (UDFs) accounting for the difference in the temperatures of the circulating inflow and outflow fluid and the variation of the surrounding ground temperature with depth were adopted in the FLUENT model. The relevant thermal properties of materials measured in laboratory were used in the numerical analyses to compare the thermal efficiency of various types of the heat exchangers installed in the test bed. The simulation results provide a verification for the in-situ thermal response test (TRT) data. The CFD numerical back-analysis with the ground thermal conductivity of 4 W/mK yielded better agreement with the in-situ thermal response tests than with the ground thermal conductivity of 3 W/mK.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.813-824
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• 2010

Thermal conductivity of soils is one of the most important parameters to design horizontal ground heat exchangers. It is well known that the thermal conductivity of soil is strongly influenced by its density and water content because of soil's particulate structure. This paper reviewed and evaluated some of the commonly used prediction models for thermal conductivity of soils with the experimental data available in the literature. Semi-theoretical models for two-component materials were found inappropriate to estimate the thermal conductivity of dry state sands. It came out that the model developed by Cote and Konrad gave the best overall prediction for unsaturated sands available in the literature. Also, a parametric analysis is conducted to investigate the effect of thermal conductivity and water content, soil type on the horizontal ground heat exchanger design. The analysis shows that a required pipe length for the horizontal ground heat exchanger is reduced with the increase of soil thermal conductivity and water content. The calculation results also show that the dimension of the horizontal ground heat exchanger can be reduced to a certain extent by using backfilling material with a higher thermal conductivity of solid particles.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.156-163
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• 2013

Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems utilize geothermal energy as a thermal source or sink, for heating, cooling and domestic hot water. It is well known that GSHP is environmentally friendly, and saves energy dramatically. For this reason, many investigative researches have been conducted on commercial and governmental buildings. However, studies on residential GSHP are few, because of the small capacity and cost. In this study, we experimented with the characteristic performance of heating, cooling and seasonal performance factor for a residential GSHP system, which consisted of two 180 m deep u-tube ground heat exchangers, a heat pump and measurement instruments. The installed capacity of the heat pump was 5RT, and the conditioning area was $62.23m^2$. From the experimental results, the cooling COP of the heat pump was 4.13, and the system COP was 3.51, while the CSPF was 3.32. On the other hand, the heating COP of the heat pump was 3.87, and the system COP was 3.39, while the HSPF was 3.39. Also, in-situ cooling COP and capacity were 93.7% and 96.4% compared with the EWT certification data, respectively, and that of heating were 98.3% and 95.7%, respectively.