• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.143-150
• /
• 2010

Line source method of borehole system assumes the entire surrounding medium is uniform. However, thermal properties of grouting region are considerably different from those of surrounding soil. In this study we investigate the effect of grouting materials on the solution of line source method with the aid of numerical analysis. This numerical model generates the temperature of borehole fluid with which line source solution can be obtained. Then this solution can be compared with input condition of numerical model. The results of this comparison show that thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance of line source solution are approximately 86% and 91% of the input condition of numerical model. Chart method is developed in this study to find the numerical input conditions (thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance) from the line source solution. Thermal response test of test borehole is conducted, the results of which are approximately consistent with the Chart method. Thermal property changes of grouting materials on the line source solution are also examined.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.29 no.10
• /
• pp.49-56
• /
• 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 Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.8-16
• /
• 2012

The use of energy pile foundation has been increased for economic utilization of geothermal energy. This paper describes an experimental and numerical study on thermal response tests (TRTs) using W and 3U-shaped ground heat exchangers (GHEs) in precast-high strength concrete (PHC) energy piles. Ground thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance were measured and compared with those numerical analysis. W-shpaed GHE showed higher heat transfer behavior than 3U-shaped one because of different conditions such as pile size and volume of grout. That is, ground thermal conductivity using W-shaped GHE was higher than that of 3U shaped GHE, and borehole thermal resistance vice versa. The relative error of borehole resistance values between numerical and analytical solution was less than 5%.

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

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.45-51
• /
• 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
• /
• v.17 no.8
• /
• pp.695-703
• /
• 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 $26.1\%$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2005.06a
• /
• pp.427-432
• /
• 2005

This study treats the advantage of in situ line source method measuring the heat transfer capacity of a borehole, using mobile equipment, to determine the thermal properties of the entire borehole system such as thermal conductivity, diffusiveity. volumetric heat capacity, and borehole thermal resistance. The results from the response test include not only the thermal properties of the ground and the borehole, but also conditions that are difficult to estimate, e,g. natural convection in the boreholes, asymmetry in the construction, etc. In this study, 1) theoretical in situ methods for assessing working fluid temperature variation in V-type PE tube have been introduced, and 2) TRTE(Thermal Response Test Equipment) has been built based on these kinds of theoretical in situ methods. Basically TRTE consists of a pump, a heater and temperature sensors for measuring the inlet and outlet temperatures of the borehole. In order to make equipment easily transportable it is set up on a small trailer. Since the response test takes above two days to execute, the test was fully automatic in recording measured data using Labview DAS(Data acquisition system) program. The test was demonstrated in the course of intensive research in this field through the one site at Ulsan city in Korea. From this kind of thermal properties test of borehole systems in situ, the design of the borehole system can be optimized regarding the total geological, hydro-geological and technical conditions at the location.

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

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.11a
• /
• pp.122.2-122.2
• /
• 2010

Knowledge of ground thermal properties is most important for the proper design of BHE(borehole heat exchanger) systems. The configure type, pipe size and thermal performance of the BHE is highly dependent on the ground source heatpump system-efficiency and instruction cost. Thermal response tests with mobile measurement devices were developed primarily for in-situ determination of design data for Standing Column Well apply. The main purpose has been to determine in-situ values of effective ground thermal conductivity and thermal resistance, including the effect of ground-water flow and natural convection in the boreholes. The test rig is set up on a some trailer, and contains a sub-circulation pump, a boiler, temperature sensors, flow meter and a data logger for recording the temperature and circulation fluid flow data. A constant heating power is injected into the SCW through the test rig and the resulting temperature change in the SCW is recorded. The recorded temperature data are analysed with a line-source model, which gives the effective in-situ values of rock thermal conductivity and thermal resistance of SCW.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.58-63
• /
• 2009

A ground-loop heat exchanger for the ground source heat pump system is the core equipment determining the thermal performance and initial cost of the system. The size and performance of the heat exchanger is highly dependent on the ground thermal properties - the ground effective thermal conductivity, the borehole thermal resistance and the undisturbed ground temperature. Nowadays, precast concrete piles using steel reinforced precast concrete piles - energy piles - are used to reduce the installing cost of the ground-loop heat exchanger. We were carried out some tests to investigate the effects of some parameters such as borehole length, grouting materials and U-tube configuration of the energy piles. 4 concrete piles, each measuring $250mm{\sim}400mm$ in diameter and approx. 10m in length, and rigged with single spiral and 3 U-tube loop of $16mm{\times}2.3mm$ PB piping. The thermal response tests were conducted using a testing device for 4-different ground-loop heat exchangers. During the heating period, the energy piles absorb the heat of 0.89kW to 1.37kW.