• 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%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.247-247
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• 1999

This paper describes a new mechanistic thermal conductivity model considering the heterogeneous microstructure of MOX fuel. Even though the thermal conductivities of MOX have been investigated numerously by experimental measurements and theoretical analyses, they show the large scattering making the performance analysis of MOX fuel difficult. Therefore, a thermal conductivity model that depends on the heterogeneous microstructure of MOX fuel has been developed by using a general two-phase thermal conductivity model. In order to apply this model for developing the thermal conductivity for heterogeneous MOX fuel, the fuel is assumed to consist of Purich particles and U02 matrix including Pu02 in solid solution. Since little relevant data on Purich particles is available, FIGARO and SiemensKWU results are only used to characterize the microstructure of unirradiated and irradiated fuel. Philliponneaus and HALDEN models are selected for the local thermal conductivities for Purich particles and matrix, respectively. Then by combining the two models, overall thermal conductivity of MOX fuel is obtained. The new proposed model estimates the MOX thermal conductivity about 10% less than the value of U02 fuel, which is in the range of MOX thermal conductivity from HALDEN. The developed thermal conductivity model has been incorporated into KAERIs fuel performance code, COSMOS, and then verified using the measured data in the FIGARO program. Comparison of predicted and measured temperatures shows the reasonable agreement within acceptable error bounds together with satisfactory results for the fission gas release and gap pressure.essure.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.45-51
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• 2009

A ground-loop heat exchanger in a ground source heat pump system is an important unit that determines the thermal performance of a system and its initial cost. The size and performance of this heat exchanger is highly dependent on ground thermal properties. A proper design requires certain site-specific parameters, most importantly the ground effective thermal conductivity, the borehole thermal resistance and the undisturbed ground temperature. This study was performed to investigate the effect of some parameters such as borehole lengths, various grouting materials and U-tube configurations on ground effective thermal conductivity. In this study, thermal response tests were conducted using a testing device with 9-different ground-loop heat exchangers. From the experimental results, the length of ground-loop heat exchanger affects to the effective thermal conductivity. Among the various grouting materials, the bentonite-based grout with silica sand shows the largest thermal conductivity value.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.695-703
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• 2005

The objective of this study is to determine the effective thermal conductivity and thermal resistance values in test boreholes with three different fill materials. To evaluate these heat transfer properties, in-situ tests on four vertical boreholes were conducted by adding a monitored amount of heat to water over various test lengths. Two parameter estimation models, line-source and numerical one-dimensional models, for evaluation of thermal response test data were compared when applied on the same four data sets. Results show that the average thermal conductivity deviation between measured data and these two models is in the range of $3.03\%$ to $4.45\%$. The effect of increasing grout thermal conductivity from 1.34 to 1.82 $W/m^{\circ}C$ resulted in overall increases in effective formation thermal conductivity by $11.1\%$ to $51.9\%$ and reductions in borehole thermal resistance by $11.6\%$ to $26.1\%$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3359-3366
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• 2021

An engineered barrier system (EBS) for the deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) is composed of a disposal canister, buffer material, gap-filling material, and backfill material. As the buffer fills the empty space between the disposal canisters and the near-field rock mass, heat energy from the canisters is released to the surrounding buffer material. It is vital that this heat energy is rapidly dissipated to the near-field rock mass, and thus the thermal conductivity of the buffer is a key parameter to consider when evaluating the safety of the overall disposal system. Therefore, to take into consideration the sizeable amount of heat being released from such canisters, this study investigated the thermal conductivity of Korean compacted bentonites and its variation within a temperature range of 25 ℃ to 80-90 ℃. As a result, thermal conductivity increased by 5-20% as the temperature increased. Furthermore, temperature had a greater effect under higher degrees of saturation and a lower impact under higher dry densities. This study also conducted a regression analysis with 147 sets of data to estimate the thermal conductivity of the compacted bentonite considering the initial dry density, water content, and variations in temperature. Furthermore, the Kriging method was adopted to establish an uncertainty metamodel of thermal conductivity to verify the regression model. The R² value of the regression model was 0.925, and the regression model and metamodel showed similar results.

• 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%.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2012

This paper reviewed and evaluated some of the commonly used prediction models for thermal conductivity of soils with the experimental data. Semi-theoretical models for two-component materials were found inappropriate to estimate the thermal conductivity of dry state soils. It came out that the model developed by Cote and Konrad gave the best overall prediction results for unsaturated soils available in the literature. However, it still needs to be improved to cover a wider range of soil types and degrees of saturation. In the present study, parametric analysis is also conducted to investigate the effect of soil type and moisture content on the horizontal ground heat exchanger design. The analysis shows that horizontal ground heat exchanger pipe length is reduced with the increase of soil thermal conductivity and water content. The calculation results also show that horizontal ground heat exchanger size can be reduced to a certain extent by using backfilling material with a higher thermal conductivity of solid particles.

• 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 Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.127-128
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• 2021

Rigid urethane foam is widely applied because it is light and has superior insulation performance compared to insulation materials such as EPS or glass wool. However, it has the disadvantage of being vulnerable to fire. Therefore, in this study, before proceeding with the research to improve the fire resistance of the rigid polyurethane foam, we would like to investigate the change in density and thermal conductivity of the rigid polyurethane foam according to the change in the mixed weight of the main material and the curing agent. It was found that the density increased as the mixed weight increased. The thermal conductivity showed similar values overall. As for the density distribution, the central part was low and the outer part was high.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.497-509
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• 1996

Evacuated powder insulations have long been known to have better thermal performance than existing commercially available insulators, such as fiber glass and CFC-blown foam. To make a composite powder panel, a series of individually evacuated panels was encapsulated in a rigid closed cell foam matrix. The panels were encapsulated in a thin glass sheet barrier to preserve the vacuum. The thermal conductivity of the individual panel was found to be $0.0062W/m^{\circ}K$ by experiment and the polyurethane foam above had a thermal conductivity of $0.024W/m^{\circ}K$. In this study, numerical analysis using finite element method was carried out to investigate insulation performance of rigid foam/evacuated powder composite panel with respect to panel geometries such as panel pitch, panel aspect ratio and panel area ratio. Numerical analysis has indicated that more optimal vacuum panel geometries, much lower overall thermal conductivities can be achieved.