• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.161-166
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• 2005

The objectives of this paper are to estimate the ground thermal conductivity by ground heat exchangers in two different places - Chooncheon and Wonjoo, and to analyze the effect of ground thermal conductivity on the ground thermal diffusivity and the size of the ground heat exchanger. In Chooncheon area, a single-U type HDPE pipe (25mm diameter) with borehole diameter of 150mm, length of 150m is installed. In Wonjoo area, a single-U type HDPE pipe (40mm diameter) with borehole diameter 150mm, length of 200m is installed. It is found that the ground thermal conductivities are estimated as 2.69 $W/m^{\circ}C$ and 2.99 $W/m^{\circ}C$ in Chooncheon and Wonjoo, respectively. It is also found that the ground heat exchanger size is reduced by 8.6% with 25% increase of ground thermal conductivity, and increase by 11.8% with 25% decrease of ground thermal conductivity.

• 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.

• 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.25 no.1
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• pp.97-104
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• 2005

A one-dimensional heat transfer model for the vertical borehole system is derived in this study to predict the thermal behavior of the system and surrounding soil. In this model the U-tube is replaced with one effective tube of effective diameter which is surrounded by concentric grout region. All thermal resistances of borehole are counted in the grout region with effective thermal conductivity of grout. Effective thermal conductivity of grout and sand are calculated through parameter estimation. The validity of this model is accomplished through comparison of the predicted temperature profiles of the model with experimental data.

• 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 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.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.128-135
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• 2018

Currently, vertical closed ground heat exchangers are the most widely utilized geothermal heat pump systems and the major influencing parameters on the performance of ground heat exchangers are the ground thermal conductivity(k) and borehole thermal resistance($R_b$). In this study, the borehole thermal resistance was calculated from the in-situ thermal response test data and the individual effects of design parameters (flow rate, number of pipe, grout composition) on the borehole thermal resistance were analyzed. The grout thermal resistance was also compared with the correlations in the literatures. The borehole thermal resistance of the investigated ground heat exchanger results in 0.1303 W/m.K and the grout thermal resistance (66.6% of borehole thermal resistance) is the most influencing parameter on borehole heat transfer compared to the other design parameters (pipe thermal resistance, 31.5% and convective thermal resistance, 1.9%). In addition, increasing the thermal conductivity of grout by adding silica sand to Bentonite is more effective than the other design improvements, such as an increase in circulating flowrate or number of tubes on enhancing borehole heat transfer.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.364-369
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• 2005

An experimental study was conducted on the thermal conductivity of various grouting materials for geothermal heat exchanger which is used as a heat sink or source in the heat pump system. The grouting of the vertical heat exchanger is important for environmental and heat transfer reasons and is generally accomplished by the placement of a low permeability material into the annular space between the borehole wall and the pipes suspended in the borehole. In this study, a lab scale test apparatus was made and measured the thermal conductivity of four grouting materials. As a result, the temperature rising tendency was similar among them, but the increasing rate was different. Thus the thermal conductivity showed a maximum difference of $27\%$ among grouting materials.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.481-484
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• 2007

Efficiency of geothermal heat exchanger operation has close relation with temperature variation of the aquifer where the exchanger is installed. In the case of long-term operation, temperature distribution of the aquifer would be similar to that of water circulating in the exchanger, which causes the decrease of heat exchange rate. Therefore, the operation period of the heat exchanger should be controlled so that the temperature distribution of the aquifer is recovered. We developed a model to determine the operation period to acquire the optimal efficiency under the given aquifer condition. With this suggested method, when we use closed-loop heat exchanger, the operation efficiency of the geothermal heat exchanger is expected to be maximized by determining the optimal operation period.