Evaluating Thermal Performance of Oval U-Tube for Ground-Source Heat Pump Systems from in Situ Measurements and Numerical Simulations
Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC • 2019
Publication Information
Authors
Yoshitaka Sakata, Ahmed A Serageldin, Takao Katsura, Motoaki Ooe, Katsunori Nagano
Keywords
Ground-source heat pump system Oval U-tube Thermal response test Borehole thermal resistance CFD
Journal
Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC
Publisher
Springer
Volume
Not Available
Issue
Not Available
Pages
1483-1491
publication.type
International
Paper Link
Open Link
Supplementary Materials
Not Available
Abstract
A new-shaped U-tube with an oval cross-section has been developed to boost the heat transfer inside the borehole heat exchanger and to reduce the heat exchanger depth and the drilling cost. In addition, it could fit efficiently inside tight boreholes, so it is fitting for installing GSHPs at urban areas. This research evaluated the effectiveness in situ by thermal response tests at total 20 borehole heat exchangers in three sites, Japan. The in situ borehole thermal resistances were about 10–30% smaller with the oval U-tube than the circle U-tube. However, the spacers had an imperceptible impact probably because of the soil pressure to the U-tubes. Also, transient numerical CFD simulations were carried out to calculate the long-term performance of a household GSHP system with oval U-tubes. It indicated that the required lengths of a borehole heat exchanger could be reduced by about 14% in the fine soils and 15–19% in the coarse soils.
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