• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3142-3147
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• 2008

A simple transient simulation of ground source heat pump system was carried out to investigate the effects of ground thermal conductivity on its performance. The TRNSYS code with a simple water to water heat pump model was used to compare the COP variation of the system. A new ground heat exchanger called by semi-closed loop was proposed and constructed in the real site. The effective thermal conductivity was measured using the test equipment developed by according to the line source model. The simulation results showed that highly efficient thermal conductivity of the grout material could increase the performance of the heat pump system very well. And the new ground heat exchanger showed the increased effective thermal conductivity as the penetration water flow rate(PWFR) was increased. Therefore, the performance improvement of the heat pump system using the proposed ground heat exchanger can be expected.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3401-3406
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• 2007

This study was performed to acquire the reliable in-situ thermal conductivity of closed type ground heat exchanger used in ground source heat pump. We selected four sites(Cheonan, Daejeon, Daegu, Gwangju) which are central area of South Korea. Test results show that the effective thermal conductivities are 2.33 W/m$^{\circ}C$, 2.50 W/m$^{\circ}C$, 2.75 W/m$^{\circ}C$ and 2.86 W/m$^{\circ}C$. From this data, we can see that thermal conductivity varies about the range of 23% with the sites. Also, thermal conductivity increases up to 20% by changing grouting material from low salica sand to high one.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.38-46
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• 2007

In order to characterize the thermal conductivity and viscosity of grout materials used for backfilling ground heat exchangers, nine bentonite grouts and cement grouts being 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 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 the case of the bentonite grouts. Maintaining the moisture content of grouts is a crucial factor in enhancing the efficiency of ground heat exchangers.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.529-532
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• 2007

In order to characterize the thermal conductivity and viscosity of grout materials used for backfilling ground heat exchangers, nine bentonite grouts and cement grouts being 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 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 in case of the bentonite grouts. Maintaining the moisture content of grouts is a crucial factor in enhancing the efficiency of ground heat exchangers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.79-98
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• 2014

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the evaluation of a thermal response test using a precast high-strength concrete (PHC) energy pile and a closed vertical system with W-type ground heat exchangers (GHEs). Field thermal response tests (TRTs) were conducted on a PHC energy pile and on a general vertical GHE installed in a multiple layered soil ground. The equivalent ground thermal conductivity was determined by using the results from TRTs. A simple analytical solution is suggested in this research to derive an equivalent ground thermal conductivity of the multilayered soils for vertically buried GHEs. The PHC energy pile and general vertical system were numerically modeled using a three dimensional finite element method to compare the results with TRTs'. Borehole thermal resistance values were also obtained from the numerical results, and they were compared with various analytical solutions. Additionally, the effect of ground thermal conductivity on the borehole thermal resistance was analyzed.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.512-520
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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 effective thermal conductivity of the ground and the effective thermal resistance of the borehole. To evaluate these heat transfer properties, in-situ thermal response tests on four vertical test boreholes with different grouting materials were conducted by adding a monitored amount of heat to circulating water. The line-source method is applied to the temperature rise in an in-situ test and extended to also give an estimate of borehole effective thermal resistance. The effect of increasing thermal conductivity of the grouting materials from 0.818 to $1.104W/m^{\circ}C$ resulted in overall increases in effective thermal conductivity by 15.8 to 56.3% and reductions in effective thermal resistance by 13.0 to 31.1%.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.761-768
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• 2008

This paper presents the results of a laboratory study on the thermal conductivity of sand(silica, quartzite, limestone, sandstone, granite and masonry sand)-water mixtures used in ground heat exchanger backfilling materials. Nearly 260 tests were performed in a thermal conductivity measuring system to characterize the relationships between the thermal conductivity of mixtures and the water content. The experimental results show that the thermal conductivity of mixtures increases with increasing dry density and with increasing water content. The most widely used empirical prediction models for thermal conductivity of soils were found inappropriate to estimate the thermal conductivity of unsaturated sand-water mixtures. An improved model using a exponential relationship to compute the thermal conductivity of dry sands and empirical relationship to assess the normalized thermal conductivity of unsaturated sand-water mixtures is presented.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.195.2-195.2
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• 2011

The borehole heat exchanger of Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP) system should be sustainable and cost effective for long term operation. To guaranty the performance of the system thermal Response Tests (TRTs) with simple recommended procedures have been applied in many countries. Korea government developed a standard TRT procedure in order to control the quality on GHP projects. In the TRT procedure interpretation method has a rule that data set has to be interpreted by the line source model(LSM). The LSM employes some assumptions that surrounding medium is homogeneous and the line source is infinite and constant heat flux, however real ground condition is unisotropic and heterogeneous, and showing regional or local ground water flows in many cases. We need to develope improved evaluation models to estimate accurate ground thermal conductivity with respect to geological and influence of ground water because current TRT standard test procedure has limitations to be applied for every locations and system. This study surveyed the uncertainty of the thermal parameters from the interpretation method considering different evaluation period. The interpretation of 208 TRT data sets represents limitations of LSM application that some obtained ground thermal conductivities are statistically unstable and convergence time of ground thermal conductivity over test period shows trends responding the length of test period. This evaluation study will be helpful to provide some effective procedure for the thermal parameter estimation and to complement current TRT standard procedure.